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THE LIBRARY OF 


REVEREND Harry M. NorTH 


GRADUATE OF THE CLASS OF 1899 
TRUSTEE 1919-1932 


DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
DURHAM, N. C. 


GRADING 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 


THE OUTCOME OF 
ORGANIZATION 


By J. W. AXTELL 
AUTHOR OF 
The Organized Sunday School 
The Teaching Problem 
The Superintendent’s Handbook 
The Teacher’s Handbook 


cates, 


Nashville, Tenn. 
The Cumberland Press 
1904 


qiz\3> 
Hem vith Sch. R. 
oe 263.44 
AATVLAG 


FOREWORD. 


A crisis is on in religious education. Forces are 
at work which point to material changes in its char- 
acter within the limits of our time. That these for- 
ces may not all be well directed is immaterial. What 
really does signify is that there is an unrest, born of 
the realization that religious education as we find it 
largely fails to educate. This unrest is especially 
marked in the Sunday school field, and finds its ex- 
pression in a general even if not clearly defined reach- 
ing after better things. 

No sane investigator can doubt that there are bet- 
ter things for the Sunday school. These are natu- 
rally looked for, too, through the introduction of 
graded work in that institution. Asa result numer- 
ous courses of study are being issued, many of which 
have much in them to commend. However, there 
is a dearth of comprehensive, practical suggestion as 
to the underlying principles of grading, and as to 
how the work may best be done. There is a mistak- 
en impression, too, that grading is feasible only un- 
der unusual circumstances This book is designed 
to help in the premises. THE AUTHOR 

Nashville, Tenn., August, 1904. 


200359 


CONTENTS. 


EPUMSIIURIIOTIUE bs oidle's niaid.i:e « «is o'uw kV aie Wiles ovale svi a ae 

Two Similar Alarms—Why They Hesitate—A Very 
Superficial View—Lack o viebindy sy ic Aim—Too Much a 
the Incidental—Discharges for Cause—How it U: 
to Sees at Hand—A Failure to Understand— 
Grading to the Rescue—Grading Defined. 


CHAPTER II. 
earmGs 28. We Finn THEM: 02.600 csecdcnsccecccs 
Grading Already Begun—One-sided Grading—A Dem- 
onstration i Needed—A Lack to sy plied— 


Where the School is Compromised—Two Venerable 
Prejudices—A Victory over Prejudice—What Must 


Follow. 
CHAPTER III. 


Tue Feasrpiniry or HigHER WoRK..............+++ 

No Place for Guess-work—Public School Advantages— 
Giants and Their Disposal—‘‘Pros’’ and "Cons — — 
The Keynote of Success—When a Thing is ‘*'D: 
About Attractiveness—Graded Work a Stimulus— 
The Best Kind of Study—Here is the Proof—An Earn- 
est Wish—The Best of All Incentives. 


CHAPTER IV. 
READ ATA TSMIOUTATES . cc cic cuss has vnasaunneievisienes 
Bible Study—Books about the Bible—Some Perplexing 
Problems—A Solution Expected—When to — 
How to Begin—About the Future—The International 
System—Severing Old Ties—A Mistaken Teacher— 
A Panacea for Separation—Lesson Association with 
lee Perecnal Friendship. 


CHAPTER V. 

PeMM MME, LIME REATIO. wy ou a & cfc'ev o 0.0 cisivjev wielels esis ecic's 
A General Consultation—Have a Clear pkg ia 
a of Authority—Simplicity in Plans— 
east Together—A Campaign of Education—In the 

Not to Be Retrograded. 


CHAPTER VI. 


OLS AND, NSW, PRINCIPENS,. 2. cccecacseccéccrcvves 


Measuring the Sunday School Life—Condition of Promo- 
tion—Emphasizing the Elementary—Wholesome and 
ental—The Necessity of Adaptation—Making 

the Plan Your Own—Helpful Suggestion Only. 


200959 


15 


19 


25 


31 


36 


6 CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER VII. — 


TEACHERS AND GRADING..........-- eect e rece eereeee 


Reorganizing Thoroughly, Provided—This Teacher for 
this Class, if—Each in the Proper Place—The Sw 
School not Exempted—The Teacher to Do One 
Advantages of Sta: in One Place—The Call oe 
perts—How the he Gains—Above All, ss 
Grade the ee SE Preliminary Grading— 
Increasing the Teaching Force. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


CoNSIDERATIONS IN GRADING PUPIIS...........+-+-: 


Children and ee pecific Lessons at Specific a 
—The Stimulus of the Definite—A Point Against the 
Sunday School—About the Dull Boy—Stimulating 
Attendance—Not New, after All—A Natural Way 
out of a Difficulty—A Possible Choice of Evils. 


LOCATING PUPIES. << .5)00:c «0</on sop oan Sala ae 


Better Larger Classes than Poor Teaches 
Dae Beoll tho Ray A Teee Hearing eae 
yy School the Key—. quiring ess ani 
Tact—Care as to Social Lines. 


A Variety of Irre; ts—Perfect G: = the bh! 
Room—How About se ae —Ki 


CHAPTER XI. 


ForMING AND STARTING.........000eceecceccceecees 


The Real Standard—A Confusion of Standards—The Age 
Standard a Drawback—The Four wtceg ese 
viding the School into Grades—Listing the Several 

Grades—A Workable Scheme—Admitting to the Bible 
Classes—The Place of Beginning—Getting the Depart- 
ments into Line—An Opportunity for Incentive. 


CHAPTER XII. 


Tue WoRK OF THE DIvISIONS........-eeeeccceeeres 
General Prim Department Suggestions—Plans of 
Work Suitable for the Primary—‘‘Child” Obsolete, 
Enter ‘‘ Boy” and ‘‘Girl”—The Great Period of Learn- 
ing—Junior Days Are Anchoring Days—The Broader 


Intermediate ork—The Seniors—No Graduation 


‘*From.” 


40 


51 


57 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XIII. Page 


From GrapE To GRADE..........-. paint deta ¢ Di hinoe a 
The Need of Symmetry—Many Pupils of Many Kinds— 

Regular and ie Courses—Minimum Ages in Pro- 
motion—The Teacher’s Great Opportunity. 


CHAPTER XIV. 
MAWNER. OF PROMOTION.....00cccscccccsesecscceses 


A Day in the Calendar—Promotion Day a Special Occa- 
sion—Promotion Always for Cause—Using a Scale of 
Points—The Evidences of Promotion—Kinds of Cer- 
tificates and Diplomas—Guarding Against a Bad Prac- 
tice—A Graded Course Register 


pany ema Courses of Study—Do not Attempt too Much 
daptation to Ages and Grades—No Place for Dog- 
matism—Supplemental Work pea 6 ay Esta 

lished Periodical Literature—Using igious Books. 


The Best Place in the School—Holding School Gradu- 
ee poeesesions About Membership—The Normal 
Class Teacher—The Hour of Meet ‘Wanted, More 
and Better Teachers—This Class in Teacher Training 
—Elective Work—The Reserve Corps. 


CHAPTER XVII. 
EQUIPMENT FOR GRADING..........ccccescccseccces 


We Must Have Good Tools—The Meaning of Equipment 
—A Matter of Relative Importance—Good Equipment 
Is Good Faith—Equipment Easily Ponible—Adapite 
tion of Equipment—The Use of the Blackboard. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 
Ustnec THE TEACHERS’ MEETING...........-0000000% 


Two Helpful Meetings—The Many-sided Resource—A 
Meeting for All Teachers—Attend, or Step Out—How 
this Mosting Vindicates Itself—Special Good Secured 
—The Sunday School Method orkshop—A Con- 
venient Tribunal—Combined rience and Judg- 
ment—The Class of All Classes—The Place for Settling 


Differences, 
CHAPTER XIX. 
GrapInc MEMORANDA...... Sdaielevicipelelesewnw's ow oie a 
Beware of *‘Exceptions’’—Correct Time Adjustments— 
A Hint for the Superintendent—Using the Library— 


The Purchase of Supplies—The Lecture Idea—The 
General Bible Class. 


71 


75 


79 


84 


88 


93 


CHAPTER XX. , Page 


We.L Worts WHILE..... © o\aelele aaloma o's‘elsaleteate Mtntehae atten 
Is It Worth While?—Losing Ground—A Characteristic 
Wi ess—Only One Chance Bad Rule, a Good 
Exception--—Connecting Links. 


Grading the Sunday School. 


CHAPTER I. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


A number of ladies are serenely discussing some 
subject of mutual interest They are having a most 
enjoyable time, and are all unconscious of impending 
danger. Without warning some one shouts, “A 
mouse!” and there is an instant transfer of feet to 
chairs and tables. Only a few in the company re- 
tain their places and calmly look around for the ter- 
rified invader. 

The working corps of the average Sunday school 
is equally prompt to run to cover when some one 
says, “Let us grade!” The thing that is meant by 
grading may be called by any of its synonyms, and 
when so called it is contemplated with perfect equa- 
nimity. The somewhat indefinite terms relating to 
higher work do not disturb our somnolence; but it 
is when forward movement is so unequivocal as to be 
called ‘‘grading” that we beg, Macbeth-like, that it 
“take any shape but that.” 

It is therefore natural that those who discuss Sun- 
day school interests should hesitate to approach this 
phase of the development of our great work. This 
hesitation is increased by the realization that grad- 
ing is just now in process of evolution, that its prin- 
ciples are only now being worked out, and that there 


Two 
Similar 
Alarms. 


Why 
They 
Hesitate. 


A Very 
Superficial 
View. 


Lack of 
Specific 
Aim. 


10 GRADING THE 


is comparatively little of practical demonstration of 
its results to which one can point. The writer has 
long been a student of grading, but has felt that the 
proportion of the untried to the tried concerning it 
was so great as to cast doubt upon the propriety of 
the preparation of a text-book on the subject. It is 
only after receiving repeated requests, extending 
through a term of years, that the work is under- 
taken. 

The general view of the Sunday school and its mis- 
sion held by even the majority of Sunday school 
workers is somewhat superficial. The representa- 
tive school is holding a reasonable number of people 
together, is fairly orderly, is quite respectable, and 
furnishes a field in which those members of the 
church who feel that they ought to be “doing some- 
thing” can do it without special effort or inconven- 
jence. As far as it goes this seems to be all right; but 
there is little disposition to go farther. Those offi- 
cially responsible for and most familiar with the 
work are satisfied. Even these too rarely go be- 
neath the surface. Why should those who know 
less about it, and are less interested, do so? This 
growing self-complacency is the bane of the present- 
day Sunday school. 

Did it ever occur to the reader that there is a prev- 
alent lack of definite aim in the Sunday school? Of 
course there is a general idea that the institution is 
to ‘do good” in the community. But what good? 
Is any one specific good thing laid down January 1 
which is to be accomplished, or known, or corrected, 
by the school, or by individuals in the school, before 
December 31? Is there anything more than a vague 
“hope” that substantial results may be realized? 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. II 


Can the average worker in the average school place 
his finger on things !earned in a given time because it 
was specifically planned that these particular things 
should be learned in that time? Have there been 
any confessions of Christ, any additions to the mem- 
bership of the church, any missionary movements in 
the community, any of God’s poor helped—all be- 
cause the organization worked by chart and compass 
to these specific ends? Be honest, now—have not 
such meagre results as have been secured in the av- 
erage school been almost wholly incidental? Is it 
not true that the one thing known to have been ac- 
complished has been the keeping of a given number 
of restless people away from the possibility of doing 
something worse for an hour on Sunday? 

Of course other good is accomplished—but how 
intangible it is! The intangible is often real, but 
perhaps oftener it is unreal. Those looking on the 
Sunday school from the outside are impressed by the 
apparent lack of reality in its achievements. This 
lack is the natural result of indefiniteness in its plans 
and slipshod methods in their execution. 

Any one who reads these pages would promptly 
discharge a salesman, or bookkeeper, or laborer, or 
cook, or seamstress, or school teacher, who would for 
a single week show the aimlessness characterizing the 
majority of our Sunday school workers in the dis- 
charge of duties left in their hands through a long 
term of years. Plain words, of course. But who 
will dispute their truth? 

As unpleasant as is the task, let us work out some 
more of the details of the picture. The conditions 
discussed are bringing the Sunday school face to face 
with a very grave danger. At a time when every 


Too 

Much 

of the 
Incidental. 


Discharges 
for 
Cause. 


How it 
Used 
to Be. 


Danger 
at Hand. 


A Failure 
to 

Under- 
stand. 


12 GRADING THE 


other educational institution is doing better and 
more painstaking work, the Sunday school in general 
is becoming more and more lax in its organization, 
and less and less exacting in its requirements. In- 
deed the most of our schools practically have no “re- 
quirements.” To illustrate, the oldtime Sunday 
school was perhaps less “‘popular,” but it did require 
some things. It called for at least the memorizing 
of scripture and made the catechism a regular part 
of the curriculum, instead of having it used at will, 
as is the case with modern schools in general 

The contrast with other educational institutions 
is very significant. These are gaining in character 
and standing. Their work is more and more thor- 
ough, more and more definite, more and more full of 
meaning. The Sunday school is entirely out of line 
with the times in these particulars, and is consequent- 
ly coming to signify less and less to those who meas- 
ure institutions by the character of their work. The 
situation must be recognized and understood. The 
Sunday school is face to face with a crisis. It is in 
danger of losing its prestige and usefulness. What 
are we going to do about it? 

The Sunday school is an evolution and is undergo- 
ing a process of evolution. Begun for one purpose, 
it has in the providence of God been diverted to an- 
other. In its present relation to the social structure 
its possibilities have not been understood. There is 
a general misapprehension as to its necessary scope 
if it is to be the religious educator of the youth of the 
Christian church. It is what it is largely because of 
this misapprehension. It has been believed that the 
voluntary character of its make-up precluded the 
possibility of its elevation to the position of a me- 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. ; 13 


thodical educational institution. Its constantly and 
rapidly shifting membership has been accepted as 
evidence that it was incapable of a more thorough 
and substantial class of work: instead of its fluctuat- 
ing personnel being justly explained on the ground 
of its very lax requirements. To correct the atti- 
tude of Sunday school workers in general toward 
their loved institution it is only necessary to remove 
this misapprehension as to its legitimate scope and 
certain possibilities. 

Right here is where grading comes in. It means 
educational saneness. It means the accomplish- 
ment of results. It means a much more substantial 
following. If it should mean a temporary elimina- 
tion of a part of the present unassimilable clientele of 
the Sunday school, that is only an incident of all 
progress, religious or otherwise. It means the erad- 
ication of incorrect conceptions as to what consti- 
tutes real work for the Master. It means adapta- 
tion of methods of work to the developments of the 
Twentieth Century. 

It also means discouragement, and the meeting of 
difficulties, and sometimes the apparent blocking of 
the way. All this must be expected. Our duty in 
the premises is to consider whether we be able with 
ten thousand men to meet the twenty thousand com- 
ing against us. Who can question the result, if we 
ask and work aright? 

What is graded work in the Sunday school? When 
(1) pupils are arranged in classes and departments 
with reference to attainment as the principal consid- 
eration, qualified by time of life, ability to learn, etc.; 
when (2) teachers are chosen and located strictly 
with respect to their fitness to instruct in these vari- 


Grading 
to the 
Rescue. 


Grading 
Defined. 


14 GRADING THE 


ous divisions; and when (3) the matter taught and 
the manner of teaching are arranged with the same 
considerations in view;—when all of these condi- 
tions are in force, the Sunday school is working un- 
der the graded system. 

In treating this subject I am especially anxious to 
be lucid and simple, adapting the discussions and 
recommendations to the needs of the lay worker and 
to the representative Sunday school. I will there- 
fore avoid the technical and the ultra pedagogic. 5 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. (5 


CHAPTER II. 


THINGS AS WE FIND THEM 


Primarily a Sunday school carries with it the idea 
of some approach to grades in classes and grades in 
teaching. A Sunday school cannot be organized 
on any other hypothesis than that people of differ- 
ent degrees of mental development are to be assem- 
bled for instruction, and that the instruction is to be 
to some extent adapted to these degrees. Every 
school is therefore in a sense a graded school. It is 
simply a question of how thoroughly the grading 
shall be done. Shall it be left as we generally find 
it—crude and unsatisfactory—or shall it be carried 
out into a classification approximating in complete- 
ness to that which is peculiar to every other institu- 
tion of an educational character? In Sunday schools 
as we find them class work is begun at a common 
place. From that point right on there is wide varia- 
tion in the thoroughness with which it is done; and 
a leading factor in this thoroughness is the matter 
and manner of grading. 

Although all Sunday schools may be said to be af- 
ter a manner graded, the grading is ordinarily con- 
fined to one side of the work. There is a kind of as- 
sorting of pupils into groups, with some reference to 
age and attainment—more particularly as to age; 
but the work usually goes no farther. This is ac- 
cepted as the limit of grading. Such a thing as as- 
sorting teachers also, with a view to adapting the 
instructors to the instructed, is in most schools prac- 


df 


A Lack 
to be 
Supplied. 


16 GRADING THE 


tically unknown. Among Sunday school managers 
of intelligence it is conceded that the closest grading 
of children compatible with local conditions is desir- 
able; but to suggest even to these, except in occa- 
sional schools, that it is no less important to meas- 
ure the capacity of people to teach, and to place re- 
strictions on the grades which they shall teach, is to 
invite dissent of the most pronounced character. 

The day is now past when it was necessary to dem- 
onstrate that education of any kind is more easily, 
more certainly and more satisfactorily acquired by 
regular and gradual steps in instruction than in any 
other way. The great school systems of the civil- 
ized world are all organized with this idea distinctly 
in view. The principle is recognized everywhere and 
under all conditions. The Sunday school alone is 
excepted. Is this exception necessary, or does it 
grow out of a misapprehension of the proprieties and 
possibilities in the case of the Sunday school? 

Those who have given the subject of grading the 
most comprehensive study are convinced that this 
manifest difference should not exist at least in its 
present degree. The best workers feel that there is 
a lack in Sunday school methods and results which 
should in some way be supplied. There is some dif- 
ference of opinion as to the way in which this lack is 
to be made good, and as to the degree of improve- 
ment which is practicable; but this not very serious 
difference is more because of the limited amount of 
demonstration in sight than because of anything 
else. 

It is not out of place to say that the situation in 
which we find the Sunday school does much to im- 
pair its standing in the community. Its work is so 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 17 


often devoid of system and so barren of outcome 
that it fails to command the respect to which it is 
really entitled. The children whose work in the 
day school is so methodical, and accompanied by so 
much of development, are apt to look with some- 
thing akin to contempt upon class work in which 
but little of specific information is sought to be im- 
parted, in which pupils of all degrees of attainment 
are placed side by side, and in which the instruct- 
or’s personal character is his only recommendation. 
Besides, adults regard slightingly the loose forma- 
tion of classes and the work of ill-assorted instruct- 
ors, and where so little is to be learned these adults 
wear lightly the harness of Sunday school member- 
ship. 

Grading a Sunday school as it should be graded 
cannot be thoroughly accomplished until two long 
established prejudices are removed. One of these is 
that it will not do to place pupils by the grade of at- 
tainment, lest many be driven from the school; and 
the other is that a teacher and a class having once 
been started together should in rare instances if ever 
be separated. The first of these difficulties is the 
more troublesome of the two in a general way, but 
the second is the more deep-seated and the more like- 
ly to defeat progressive attempts. Neither will yield 
quickly or easily to treatment, and either will per- 
haps require years for its correction; but both are 
absolutely incompatible with the best Sunday school 
work, and both must in time give way to improved 
conditions. 

The entire history of the Sunday school is a history 
of prejudices overcome and obstacles within itself 
removed. The Sunday school itself, originating as 


Where th 
School is 
Compro- 
mised. 


Two 
Venerable 
Prejudices. 


A Victory 
over 
Prejudice. 


What 
Must 
Follow. 


18 GRADING THE 


it did outside of strict church lines, was long regard- 
ed with disfavor by the church. Indeed, one of the 
largest churches near the home of the writer carried 
an announcement for years on its front to the effect 
that it had no Sunday school, using this as a drawing 
card. ‘This condition has gradually given way, until 
by its merits the Sunday school has come to be ac- 
cepted and employed as the advance agent of per- 
manent evangelical work the world over 

In spite of the prejudices in the way, the graded 
system of instruction must come just as surely as the 
Sunday school has come, and, like the school, to stay. 
The school which is first to recognize this necessary 
condition in any community, and which will first 
conform its plans to the new requirements, will be- 
come the foremost school as well; and those schools 
which are slowest to accept the progressive idea will 
in a few years find themselves working to great dis- 
advantage, and seriously handicapped for useful- 
ness. 

The two prejudices alluded to will be considered in 
another connection. The danger of meddling with 
either is greatly magnified, though, in the imagina- 
tion of those good people who in all of their church 
work are unduly afraid of giving personal offence. 
Giving offence is always to be avoided, and usually 
may be where thoughtful care is taken to do every- 
thing impartially, judiciously, and for reasons which 
are clearly explained. However, the risk of displeas- 
ure must sometimes be incurred in the discharge of 
of duty. 


SUNDAY SCHOOL, 19 


CHAPTER III. 
THE FEASIBILITY OF HIGHER WORK. 


There is already too much of guess-work and un- 
certainty connected with the Sunday school, and it 
would be most unfortunate if anything were intro- 
duced which would tend to aggravate these condi- 
tions. It is therefore important that we stop on the 
threshold of our subject and determine whether the 
comparatively thorough grading of the Sunday 
school can be successfully accomplished. We must 
not only know whether it is at all feasible, but also 
whether it can be done without unreasonable hazard 
and effort. 

Let it be admitted that the public school has a 
great advantage over the Sunday school in this par- 
ticular. In the enforcement of its purposes the for- 
mer has back of it the law of the land, the determina- 
tion of the parent that the child shall be educated, 
and the worldly incentive appealing to the child to 
come up higher, There is no law especially affecting 
religious education. Few parents care to use their 
authority to secure the attendance of their children 
at Sunday school, much less to affect the kind of 
work they do there. Most parents are utterly indif- 
ferent about the matter. Nor is there anything in 
it all to appeal to the ambition of the child. Besides 
there is a vast difference between something that is 
made a business for eight or nine months in the year, 
and something which commands an hour, almost in- 
cidentally, from forty to fifty-two times in the year. 


No Place 
for 
Guess- 
work. 


Public 
School 
Advan- 
tages. 


Giants 
and their 
Disposal. 


‘ ‘Pros”’ 
and 
**Cons. ” 


20 GRADING THE 


The great differences in the influences affecting the 
two institutions must not be minimized in our caleu- 
lations. : 

While careful about minimizing in one direction, 
let us be equally careful about maximizing in anoth- 
er When we become men we put away many child- 
ish things, but we are prone to not put away our 
childish notions about giants in the way of things 
which we are not especially anxious to undertake. I 
say things we are not anxious to undertake—for the 
reason that giants have little or no place as expected 
impediments when our hearts are in the thing that 
lies ahead In the one case we create hobgoblins 
with indefatigable industry, and clothe them with 
astonishing powers. Inthe other case Blunderbores 
vanish like magic before the heat of our enthu- 
siasm. 

What we need, then, is a calm, dispassionate 
weighing of the “pros” and ‘“‘cons.’’ Nor can I re- 
frain from saying in this connection that if we are 
satisfied the thing in contemplation is for the glory 
of God and tke welfare of his kingdom, we are bound, 
as loyal children of the King, to give the “pros” the 
greater consideration. The weighing of the ‘‘cons”’ 
should be more for the purpose of circumventing 
them than for allowing them to deter us from a pur- 
pose born of a desire to serve our Master in a better 
way. It should be remembered, for our encourage- 
ment, that much more difficult things—things seem- 
ingly altogether out of keeping with the times in 
which they were undertaken—have repeatedly been 
accomplished in the King’s name. 

The keynote of success in grading the Sunday 
schoo] lies in creating interest. Let this be our plat- 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 21 


form. Effort must be centered on making the work 
attractive. This principle must run through it all. 
Making work attractive does not mean the introduc- 
tion of sensational features. It does not mean the 
engrafting of the frivolous or the merely superficial. 
It does not mean the loss of an iota of the dignity of 
church work or religious instruction. No, no, no! 
On the other hand, it means just the opposite of all 
this. It means the vitalizing of things which to a 
large proportion of our young people have always 
seemed to be dead; making possible that which has 
too often seemed impossible: making knowledge as- 

similable and appetizing which has too often been 
administered as a medicine; the establishing of 


bonds of closer syrapathy.in work which has been 
marked by too lit In short, as far 


as the Sunda is concerned, it means practical 
revolution, 

But can dry things be made attractive? Few 
things are intrinsically ‘“dry.’’ The unattractive 
quality of dryness is usually imparted to a subject by 
environment, by the manner of its treatment, by its 
apathetic presentation. Can the Sunday school be 
made attractive? With all its weaknesses, it is often 
so now. Bend the united energies of a half score of 
people to accomplishing this end, and note the re- 
sult. Sympathetic earnestness is attractive. Sys- 
tematic work can be made very attractive. Achieve- 
ment is essentially attractive. Young people will 
be found especially susceptible respecting all of these 
things. 

A thoroughly progressive, well-managed Sunday 
school is naturally attractive in its details, and is 
doubly so in its aggregate character. Easily, unre- 


The 
Keynote 
of 
Success. 


When a 
Thing 
is “Dry.” 


About 
Attract- 
iveness. 


Graded 
Work a 
Stimulus. 


The 
Best 
Kind of 
Study. 


22 GRADING THE 


strainedly and smoothly systematic in its main fea- 
tures, symmetrically arranged, quickly responsive, 
sympathetically coéperative—of course it will at- 
tract. Will these things appeal to young people? 
Join heartily in creating such a picture for them, and 
note the result! Takea bright boy into a great busi- 
ness house some day, and show him how thoroughly 
systematic everything is; how one thing dovetails 
into another for a purpose; how one mind directs it 
all, and how the activity of scores of brains is com- 
bined in the finished product. Then note how your 
boy’s eyes shine with admiration. That admiration 
awaits the Sunday school which masses in itself ad- 
mirable characteristics. 

Without discussing the point in detail just here, 
let me say that graded work furnishes a stimulus now 
rarely known in the Sunday school. In no place is 
special incentive more needed than just here. It is 
largely furnished by improved environment, the re- 
alization that something positive is being done, that 
some well defined end is to be reached. A healthy 
stimulus is never dangerous. The graded school 
provides this healthy stimulus in a natural way. 


Voluntary study is the best of study, just as vol- 


untary service is the best of service. Born of the 
will of the student, made. matter of personal choice, 
it possesses a meaning of itsown. Study of Sunday 
school lessons is largely voluntary, and in the graded 
Sunday school is almost wholly voluntary. The 
good student of the lessons becomes the especially 
loyal member of the school; and by as much as he 
can be led to improve his lesson, by at least that 
much is his loyalty to the school intensified. Every- 
thing that elevates the standard of the Sunday 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 23 


school thus adds not only to its dignity and useful- 
ness, but to its organic strength. 

That graded work in the Sunday school is feasible, 
and in every way promotive of its highest interests, 
is a matter of demonstration. Here and there in 
our schools is a teacher who for years has been work- 
ing along lines somewhat similar to those proposed. 
These teachers not only carry along the regular les- 
sons in a comparatively thorough way, but many of 
them arrange extra work beside. What is the re- 
sult? I call upon you, reader, to witness that the 
c Ses Sie vet oe the et neniler i ther at- 
tendance, the most orderly in their conduct, the 
most enthusiastic in their attitude toward school in- 
terests of every kind, Ialso ask you to witness that 
the irregular, disloyal, disorderly, unreliable classes 
are in the hands of teachers who have no standard, 
who establish no requirements, and who come far- 
thest of all short of working in a systematic way. 

The superintendent looks out over the school, and 
wishes in his heart that he had more classes managed 
in just this way. He knows that his burdens would 
be lightened, his school strengthened, and all of 
his difficult problems solved, could he multiply 
this type of class all over the room. And do you 
know, reader, that this is equivalent to wishing that 
his school were conducted on at least an approxima- 
tion to the graded system? 

The Sunday school is too often attended because 
of habit, and a sense of duty, rather than for other 
and better reasons. Habit is not to be despised as a 
character builder, and a sense of duty has prevented 
many a spiritless church undertaking from being an 
utter failure; but it is possible to have the rooms 


An 
Earnest 
Wish. 


24 GRADING THE 


well filled from a better motive than either. The 
Sunday school properly graded and well conducted, 
where a high order of work is accomplished, and 
where the standard is always kept well aloft, is a 
place to which people soon learn to lovetocome. No 
attendance is so large, so regular, so enthusiastic, so 
enjoyable, and so fruitful of good, as that which is 
made up of people who want to attend; and no Sun- 
day school has touched the keynote of great success 
until it learns that it must not only have the respect 
of the neighborhood but must have a place in its af- 
fections as well. These it should have, and officers 
and teachers should not rest until it is in full and un- 
disputed possession of this point of vantage in ener- 
ergizing and popularizing the school. 

I do not need to point the moral indicated by the 
paragraphs ofthischapter. It is altogether obvious. 
Grading is not only feasible—it is almost imperative. 
It is not a question of what is needed, or what the 
next step in Sunday school progress should be. The 
real question is, Do we want better things badly 
enough to pay the reasonable price at which they can _ 
be secured? 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 25 


CHAPTER IV. 


BASAL DIFFICULTIES. 

In discussing the feasibility of grading we are met 
at the outset by the lack of a universally accepted 
text-book as a foundation for our work. In order to 
facilitate Bible study for people of all ages and all 
degrees of attainment, modern lesson helps have 
been planned. With all their faults, and in spite of 
their dilution of the truth, they have served a useful 
purpose, and could illy be spared except a new dis- 
pensation should provide us something better. 

The Bible as a whole, a collection of inspired books 
by a number of authors, is not arranged in itself for 
graded study, or for systematic study of any kind. 
It is given to man as a treasure house, in which by 
searching he may find gems of priceless value. But 
as to the manner in which the quest is to be conduct- 
ed in detail never a word is furnished. The warrant 
for the search is given in John 5:39; and right there 
the problem is left for man himself to solve, aided by 
the light for which he is directed to ask. 

For hundreds of years men have been writing on 
how to study the Bible. Many of their books are of 
rare excellence, yet they have been written from so 
many standpoints as to be impossible of general 
adoption. They are written for students, too, and 
those only of mature years, while grading contem- 
plates class work by everybody from toddling child 
to aged grandsire. It is not by voluminous books 
that the equipment for efficient graded work is to 
be secured, We must look farther. 


Bible 
Study. 


Books 
about 
the 

Bible. 


Some 
Perplex- 
ing 
Problems. 


A 
Solution 
Expected. 


When to 
Begin. 


26 GRADING THE 


A special difficulty in preparing for well consid- 
ered graded study lies in finding the place in the Bi- 
ble for the beginning, for each progressive step in 
proper succession, and for the natural finish for such 
a course. With each of these agreed upon, such 
questions as the following naturally arise: Should 
the student go over the course only once? How long 
a period should the course cover? Should all parts 
of the Bible be included, and if not who shall say 
what shall be omitted? In carrying out the purpos- 
es of Bible study is it not necessary to recur frequent- 
ly to those parts more vitally related to the Christian 
life? Must all new pupils of whatever age begin at 
the same time, at the same place? 

These puzzling questions might be continued in- 
definitely. The few cited illustrate, however, the 
perplexing nature of the problem. That a satisfac- 
tory solution will be reached I have no manner of 
doubt. It must come, though, asa result of years of 
prayerful experiment, and must be worked out, as 
the International system has been worked out, to the 
satisfaction of Christendom. It may come as an 
adaptation of the International lessons to new con- 
ditions—conditions which are crowding on apace. 
Who knows? It is not the province of this book, or 
the purpose of the writer, to attempt the solution, 
This will come naturally in the fullness of time. 

But this higher order of work in the Sunday school 
cannot await the coming of the new order of things. 
Indeed the coming of these better things is contin- 
gent upon such beginning as we are able to make. 
Because we cannot have the ideal at once, must we 
never start towardit? Thereis but one thing to do, 
and that is to begin—and begin now. 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 27 


But how? By availing ourselves of just what we 
have, and to the best advantage. The great major- 
ity of our schools are using the International lessons. 
Let these schools continue, for the present at least, 
with these lessons, other schools adhering to their 
own present systems. These systems, or any sys- 
tems worthy of the name, furnish bases upon which 
glorious superstructures can be reared—if we will do 
the kind of work necessary to secure such results. 
We have never half appreciated the advantages af- 
forded by lesson plans of universal acceptance, and 
the Sunday school world is now living at a poor dy- 
ing rate because of this lack of appreciation. 

We need not bother our heads in the beginning 
with anything greater than the doing well of that 
which we have heretofore been doing all too poorly. 
We can grade our Sunday schools sufficiently on the 
present lesson basis to infinitely elevate our stand- 
ards—and when that is accomplished we will be in 
position to talk about and intelligently undertake 
the greater things. Workable plans, suitable litera- 
ture and all needed facilities will come when the Sun- 
day school world shall indicate that it is ready for 
them. My plea is for the needy teachers and pupils 
of our own day and hour. 

But, says some one, the International lesson 
system is antagonistic to the grading idea. You 
have heard this statement made again and again; 
but what is really true is that this system (1) does 
not contemplate a graduated, progressive course of 
study extending over a term of years, and (2) it does 
not select its lessons with reference to any age of pu- 
pils. These are difficulties much more easily sur- 
mountable than those connected with any proposed 


How 
to 


Begin. 


About 
the 
Future. 


The 
Interna- 
tional 
System. 


Severing 
Old 
Ties. 


A > 
Mistaken 
Teacher. 


28 GRADING THE 


untried system, and are really less serious than they 
at first appear. Assigning to these difficulties, 
though, and any others which present themselves, 
their full value, is there anything else to which we 
can now turn with equal confidence? 

It is the King’s business, and it requireth haste. 
The prestige of the Sunday school is in danger. Its 
usefulness is impaired. Its magnificent constituen- 
cy is slighted. Something must bedone. Allagree 
that this something must energize the institution and 
attract its wavering adherents. Is there anything 
else to which we can resort that is so feasible and so 
reasonable as that which has just been proposed? 

In a change from old to new methods some other 
drawbacks must be noted, which, however, mainly 
disappear on investigation. One of these is the sev- 
ering of old ties. A class and teacher often grow to 
be almost a part of each other, and each is disposed 
to shrink from the idea of separation. This does not 
prove, though, that such separation is not frequently 
advisable. Indeed it is often the case that in in- 
stances of this kind but little progress is made, the 
teacher being easy, genial and not at all exacting, 
and the pupils while recognizing these amiable qual- 
ities adding but little from year to year to their 
store of biblical knowledge. There are cases, perhaps, 
in which the severing of this relationship is a mat- 
ter for serious consideration, but they are not usual. 

There is frequent misapprehension in this connec- 
tion on the part of the teacher. The teacher long 
with certain pupils sometimes becomes possessed of 
the idea that the pupils’ allegiance to the school is 
because of this relationship. Ina great majority of 
cases this is a clear misconception. On the other 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 29 


hand, the pupil’s loyalty is sometimes in spite of the 
supposed strong tie. I have known teachers to hold 
this opinion concerning pupils who were absolutely 
anxious for a change of teachers. The losses to 
school membership from changes of teachers on a 
fixed plan of grading are certain tobe slight. Indeed 
it is within reason to say that the regaining of pupils 
lost through the failure to change these same teach- 
ers will probably compensate for all losses. 

The pain of such separation is mainly felt by the 
teacher, with whom it may long linger. With the 
young pupil it is usually a transient emotion, fully 
dispelled by the contemplation of something new to 
come. A teacher of experience says that ‘The pu- 
pil is willing to give up any teacher for the sake of 
recognition and promotion.” This is a panacea of 
almost unfailing efficacy. None of us like to think 
that we can so soon drop out of lives to which we 
have borne a responsible relation, but that such is 
the law of nature is proved by the equanimity with 
which as the years pass we view the losses we once 
regarded as unbearable. The teacher’s compensa- 
tion lies in retaining the tender respect of those once 
held in close association, and forming connections 
of the same kind with new lives and characters. 

Even the most thorough grading of the Sunday 
school, though, does not involve sudden and fre- 
quent separation of teachersand classes. There is no 
reason why the twoshould not remain together, if de- 
sirable, through an entire department, and this usual- 
ly covers a period of years. So that at most these 
trying experiences cannot be of frequent occurrence. 

A more important disadvantage to the teacher re- 
tained in a single juvenile grade is the lack of contact 


A 

Panacea 
for 
Separation. 


Lesson 
Association 
with 
Children. 


Personal 
Friend- 
ships. 


30 GRADING THE 


with more mature minds in the discussion of the les- 
son. Almost as much is lost, though, by the teach- 
er who takes the class from the beginning to the fin- 
ish in the ordinary school, so much time being con- 
sumed in passing through childhood grades. Be- 
sides the lesson studied is usually the same, and the 
views and questions of bright children are not with- 
out value even to the teacher who longs for lesson in- 
tercourse with older people. No teacher is shut off 
from such intercourse, either, for all have the privi- 
leges of the Teachers’ Meeting. Thorough grading 
does not necessarily contemplate different lessons, 
but presentations of the same lesson in ways adapted 
to the several grades. Were this a serious drawback, 
however, it could only be set down as another of the 
sacrifices which every devoted teacher is ready to 
make for the Sunday school. 

A more serious trouble is the matter of personal 
friendships between pupils. These close friend- 
ships are advantageous while the “cronies” are work- 
ing side by side in a grade to which both naturally 
belong, and when well matched inage. When driv- 
en apart by legitimate classification, or disparity in 
years, the result is sometimes unfortunate. Teach- 
ers frequently aggravate troubles of this kind by un- 
duly magnifying them. The separation should be 
good naturedly assumed to be a matter of course. 
The teacher is watched very closely for a “cue” in 
matters of this kind. If one of the “cronies” to be 
separated is noticeably the stronger of the two, a ju- 
dicious private appeal to his stronger will sometimes 
removes the difficulty. It is unwise, though, to seek 
the help of a pupil in any such case unless clearly in- 
dicated by circumstances. 


SunpDay SCHOOL, 31 


’ 


CHAPTER V. 


GENERAL ESSENTIALS. 


What are some of the preliminary essentials in un- 
dertaking to change from the old way of doing things 
to the plan of working which within a few years will 
be adopted by the most progressive Sunday schools 
everywhere? Here are some practical suggestions: 

As a beginning, let the superintendent, officers and 
teachers, together with the pastor and such active 
workers as will come into consultation, meet and 
discuss the entire subject thoroughly. The superin- 
tendent and pastor at least should have consulted 
about it previously, deciding upon its desirability, 
and gathering all possible data concerning it. Let 
these data be submitted to this general council. Talk 
it over dispassionately and earnestly, and look at it 
from every side, If all agree to take the advanced 
step let the very best possible committee be appoint- 
ed at once to consider and report upon details. Ifa 
practically unanimous decision cannot be reached at 
this meeting, quietly talk the matter over with those 
who hesitate, and when they come to see the advan- 
tages of the proposed change, as they in the end will, 
call another meeting and take the step already men- 
tioned. 

It is necessary that there be perfect unanimity at 
thestart. Itisacase which will not admit of divid- 
edcounsels. Do not begin with a contingent or ten- 
tative determination to grade the school. Let there 
be no peradventure about the movement. It is only 


Have a 
Clear 
Under- 
standing. 


Recogni« 
tion of 
Authority. 


32 GRADING THE 


when thoroughly committed to it that the school can 
count on success. The eyes of young people are very 
quick to see the weakness of a position assumed with 
hesitation and in a half-hearted way:—and when 
such weakness is discovered, the difficulties of the 
undertaking are greatly multiplied. 

It is no less essential to have a perfect understand- 
ing of the work ahead. Every certain or probable 
obstacle which can be thought of should be brought 
up for consideration, and carefully weighed, so as to 
avoid disconcerting surprises later. Minimize noth- 
ing. Look even the most discouraging conditions 
squarely in the face, and prepare for meeting them— 
not for avoiding or concealing them. Let every of- 
ficer, teacher and unofficial worker thoroughly un- 
derstand what is to be done, and be brought into 
close touch with every other officer, teacher and 
worker. In no other way can any Sunday school 
work of importance be carried to a successful con- 
clusion, Right here let the unsympathetic, the 
doubting, the obstructing step aside from the official 
ranks. 

That prompt recognition of and perfect subordi- 
nation to properly constituted authority, which is so 
necessary in all Sunday school work, is doubly nec- 
essary in establishing the graded school. Let it be 
understood that the movement has the deliberate 
judgment and hearty approval of the officers of the 
church behind it, and that the Sunday school man- 
agement is fully commissioned to carry out this ex- 
pressed willofthechurch. Then let the plans of the 
superintendent, or of the committee in charge, be 
followed implicitly and without question (these plans 
having been approved by the council). There may 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 33 


be wisdom in a multitude of counsellors in the adop- 
tion of a general policy, but the voice of the multi- 
tude in the arrangement of details is unavoidable 
confusion, It is in the council of war that the wis- 
dom of details may be discussed—never on the field 
of battle. To expect the executive officer of the 
school to consult his helpers at any point, except in 
council or in an emergency, farther than in his judg- 
ment he may think best, is to introduce an element 
of uncertainty which is demoralizing. 

Another essential is simplicity in plans. While 
perfect system is indispensable, tedious elaboration 
isa danger to be avoided. Of two plans for the Sun- 
day school which seem to be equally meritorious in 
their essentials it is always the part of wisdom to 
choose the simpler. Many a well considered cam- 
paign of progress in this work has failed because of 
unnecessary multiplication of details. That Sunday 
school in which grading is in most danger of signal 
failure, other conditions being satisfactory, is the 
school which undertakes too much, and which in the 
undertaking is too lavish in the use of redtape. We 
want not too much plan, but “just a plenty.”’ 

It is also necessary in the contemplated revolution 
in the Sunday school that the plans, having been 
adapted to all parts of the school, shall be introduced 
in all departments at the same time. To begin oth- 
erwise is to invite confusion and lose the greatest op- 
portunity in the history of the institution. Every 
superintendent wishes from time to time for an occa- 
sion which will permit him to ‘‘begin new,” and fur- 
nish indisputable ground for making needed changes 
The beginning of grading furnishes just this occasion, 
and to make it effective the changes which it brings 

3— 


Simplic- 
ity in 
Plans 


Begin- 
ning 
Together. 


Education. 


In the 
Classes. 


34 GRADING THE 


must be school-wide in their application at the same 
time. Toillustrate, although much less can be done 
in grading in the adult division of the school than 
among the children, yet that little must be done at 
the one time when the greatest impulse can be given 
to the entire movement. Having thus begun to- 
gether, let all departments keep together in the same 
relative positions right along. Just how this gener- 
al school symmetry is promotive of general success 
must be seen to be fully realized. 

The need of a campaign of education must not be 
overlooked. Many a heart never receives the truth 
simply because the truth has never been personally, 
patiently and lovingly presented. Even one individ- 
ual who has carefully studied the subject of grading 
may revolutionize an entire community by persist- 
ent personal effort. The working force of a Sunday 
school should be able to do the same thing more eas- 
ily and more certainly. The matter must be “talk- 
ed up,” pastor and people working side by side in the 
good cause. This campaign should open just far 
enough ahead of the introduction of the change in 
the school to have the change come as nearly as pos- 
sible at atime when interest in the subject is at a 
climax—say a month or so in advance. The tactical 
advantage of this attention to dates will be appar- 
ent. 

Let the teachers talk it over in the classes—not 
doubtingly or hesitatingly, but confidently and re- 
assuringly. There will be some objection, which 
should be treated lightly. This objéction will dis- 
appear in good time if the subject is well and earnest- 
ly presented. Approving sentiment will have to be 
created, and if the teachers approach the work in the 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 35 


proper spirit and with unanimity the result will be 
accomplished. It is the experience everywhere that 
opposition has only to understand in order to disap- 
pear. : 

Let it also be explained to the pupils that in the 
preliminary grading the positions which they already 
hold will not be unfavorably affected—that is to say, 
the question affecting the pupil will be, Shall he re- 
main where he is, or go higher? that in no case will it 
consign him to a lower grade. 

As simple as they are, these suggestions cannot be 
safely ignored. These steps having been taken, the 
school is ready for the very best work in its history. 
Once fairly under way, the system provides for its 
own contingencies and perpetuation, and may be 
safely left in the hands of people who have shown 
any aptitude whatever for work in the Sunday 
school, 


Not to 
be 
Retro- 
graded. 


Measuring 
the 
Sunday 
School 
Life. 


36 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER VI. 


OLD AND NEW PRINCIPLES. 


When grading has been determined upon, and the 
preliminary steps have been taken, we are ready for 
the consideration of the principles which must gov- 
ern in carrying on the work, and which must distin- 
guish this work from that to which we have been ac- 
customed. Some of these principles are old, some of 
them are new—all of them must have a part in goy- 
erning. They are basal and essential. 

1. The Sunday school life of every child connected 
with the institution must be measured in advance in 
its entirety, this life being subdivided into distinct 
periods, each period possessing features peculiar to 
no other period, and providing work differing to a 
greater or less degree from that of any other period; 
all progressively arranged for reaching a positive 
end. The same principle is to be applied with some 
modifications to the youth of the school, and tenta- 
tively to the adult divisions. For the present at 
least this comprehensive plan of work must be so ar- 
ranged as to conflict in no way with established les- 
son systems. It must mean both the better devel- 
opment and adaptation of these and the introduction 
of other lesson features calculated to round out, sim- 
plify and systematize religious instruction. This 
means the blending of established systems with pro- 
gressive courses of study. These courses of study 
will be discussed in another chapter. 


SunDAY SCHOOL. 37 


2. The passing of pupils from one of these periods 
to another must be because of the recognition of ab- 
solute attainment of some kind. Certain things stip- 
ulated to be taught in a given period must be learned 
in that period before the way is clear for entry into 
the next. While this condition is to be interpreted 
in a common sense way, it cannot be waived. It is 
of course understood that the requirements here 
must be modified as compared with those of schools 
of other kinds; yet this modification must in no way 


prejudice the standard of work or the respect in 


which it is held. 

3. Instruction must be more broadly elementary. 
There is a prevalent impression that the simple in- 
cidental facts of Bible instruction which lie on the 
surface are to be taught tosmall children only. The 
result is that a list of questions identically the same 
asked of a Junior class and of a Bible class will elicit 
twice as many correct answers in the former case as 
in the latter. I taught a Bible class recently in 
which a teacher was incidentally located for the day. 
I asked her to name the father of Solomon, and al- 
though I referred to him as the shepherd boy who 
became king, and pointed to him in other unmistak- 
able ways, she was utterly unable to answer the ques- 
tion. It is taken for granted in Sunday school in- 
struction that otherwise intelligent people—even 
church members—know a great deal of which they 
are really profoundly ignorant, and (let me tell the 
whole truth) shamelessly ignorant. 

Any effort at elevating the standard of Sunday 
school instruction which does not include a liberal] 
measure of elementary work all along the line is not 
worth considering. It is on the knowledge of these 


Condition 
of 
Promotion. 


Empha- 
sizing the 
Elemen- 
tary. 


Wholesome 
and 

Funda- 
mental. 


The Neces= 
sity of 
Adaptation. 


38 GRADING THE 


things so easily known that progress from grade to 4 
grade should be mainly recognized, and it is only 
when religious education contains a substratum of 
this kind of palpable fact that it becomes of appre- 
ciable value. Teaching may be made thus whole- 
some and fundamental without in the least incurring 
the danger of degenerating into the childish. Ofthe 
church-going masses of our day it may be truthfully 
said that “‘a little child does lead them” in a knowl- 
edge of holy things. Grading the Sunday school 
must help to take away this reproach. 

4. The element of adaptation must figure more 
largely in the work of instruction. There isa lack of 
flexibility in modes of teaching. Class methods 
need to be adopted more with a few individuals in 
view than with reference to a hard-and-fast precon- 
ceived plan of action. The representative teacher 
needs to be more of an individual, original force in 
the class than a too close imitator of even the best of 
teaching models. Let the pupil find a personality 
keenly interested in his individual achievement, and 
ready to adapt method to that achievement. The 
student in danger of college failure avails himself 
of a personal tutor. Let the teacher stand ready 
to bear the relation of tutor to the halting pupil. O, 
how such a relationship helps both teacher and pu- 
pil! The two are working together for an end, and 
when the teacher is ready to so work the probabili- 
ties of disappointment in the outcome are greatly 
lessened 

5. At the risk of introducing a point which may 
be considered irrelevant just here, let me add what I 
believe to be a principle of as great importance as 
any of those named. It is unwise to adopt anybody’s 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 39 


plan of grading in exact detail as presented. Every 
bit of available information or suggestion on the sub- 
ject should be secured and digested, and such parts 
chosen as will exactly suit your special case. Out of 
it alla plan of your own may be evolved. It may be 
almost like the plan of some other school, but if not 
exactly adapted to yours make such changes as will 
insure the adaptation to be as nearly perfect as pos- 
sible. You will think more of this amended plan 
than of any other, will feel more interest in its suc- 
cess, and its local adaptation will greatly assist in ty- 
ing the community fast to it. 

The writers of books and the editors and contrib- 
utors of Sunday school periodicals are doing a great 
workin ourcountry. Writing from countless stand- 
points, and guided by ever-varying experiences, they 
are furnishing a wealth of suggestion which is inval- 
uable. But it is only suggestion after all. What 
they say is not designed to supplant that original 
planning which is a strong point in the success of ev- 
ery Sunday school which is sufficiently well known 
to be cited as a model. Let these people help you, 
but do not let the work of anybody else take the 
place of that indefinable something which makes an 
enterprise your own. 


Making 
the 
Plan 
Your 
Own. 


Helpful 
Suggestion 
Only. 


40 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER VII. 
TEACHERS AND GRADING. 


In discussing teachers and grading let us, first of 
all, recognize that teaching is the center around 
which the Sunday school revolves—the means by 
which its great work is to be accomplished. We or- 

Rectcin: ganize the Sunday school for no other reason than 

ing that people may be taught. We reorganize it every 

Thoroughly year, closely inspecting the make-up of its officers, 

—Provided. making such changes as are deemed best, revising 
the plans, and fearlessly doing very many things 
which the welfare of the school may seem to demand 
—up to a certain point. This fearlessness reaches 
its limit, though, when we come to the organization 
of the teachers. Here the principle that all changes 
which the true interests of the school call for should 
be made without hesitation is expected to be tem- 
pered with the qualification that this shall be so done 
as not to interfere with ideas which teachers them- 
selves may have as to whom they should teach. It 
is right here that a time-honored prejudice is met 
with, and, strongly as it is intrenched, the introduc- 
tion of a thorough system of grading is certain to re- 
sult in its ultimate overthrow. As things now are, 
its teaching is both the pride and the shame of the 
Sunday school. The element of shame must be 
eliminated from the situation. 

If, then, teaching is the most important part of 
the school work, it is all the more necessary that it be 


SunDay SCHOOL. 41 


subjected to as absolute regulation as anything else 
connected with the school; that the tenure of office 
of the teacher be, as is that of the superintendent, a 
matter of expediency; and that the judgment of an 
appointed teacher shall not be the sole criterion, as is 
too often the case, as to the choice of classes to be 
taught. A given teacher and a given class should be 
combined only on the satisfying of certain conditions. 
The teacher must be as much the creature of the or- 
ganization, subject to assignment or rejection, as is 
the superintendent or any other officer. This prin- 
ciple must be recognized absolutely and without 
qualification in every Sunday school which is pre- 
paring to do the best work. 

Every individual responsibly connected with the 
Sunday school can work better and accomplish more 
in some positions than in other positions. This is 
emphatically true of the teacher. Every teacher is 
better adapted to classes of a certain age or grade 
than to classes of any other age or grade. Just as 
the matter and manner of teaching must if success- 
ful vary with the age and attainment of those who 
are taught{ so one who has proven efficient in teach- 
ing classes of a certain degree of advancement should 
be retained for such classes. No principle in educa- 
tion is better established than this, and so thorough- 
ly is it recognized that it governs without question in 
educational work of all kinds outside of the Sunday 
school. If in a graded school of any other kind the 
teachers should begin with the Primary room, and 
move with the same pupils from room to room until 
graduation, that school would at once deteriorate in 
the quality of its work and be passed by for other 
schools conducted on modern principles. 


This 
Teacher 
for this 
Class, if— 


in the 


The 
Sunday 
School 

not 
Exempted. 


The 
Teacher 
to do 
One 
Thing. 


Advantages 
of Staying 
in One 
Place. 


42 GRADING THE 


What is there in the Sunday school that exempts 
it from this law of the schools evolved from the ex- 
perience of centuries? Why should the work of the 
Sunday school teacher instead be aimed at a few in- 
dividuals through perhaps a long term of years in 
the class—individuals who are thus handicapped 
from learning anything else except what that partic- 
ular teacher may know, and whose views of religious 
life are thus shaped from a single and possibly a nar- 
row standpoint? 

The Sunday school teacher should, as a fundamen- 
tal consideration, be a Primary teacher, or a Junior 
teacher, or an Intermediate teacher, or a Senior 
teacher—rarely if ever being these in a regular suc- 
cession which is governed by the progress of certain 
pupils through these various grades. The teacher 
should belong to the department through which the 
pupil passes, instead of passing from one department 
to the next with the pupil. There may be an occa- 
sional teacher who can work in different departments 
equally well—but such teachers are rare. Even 
such a teacher will do better in one field. 

Many manifest advantages to the teacher arise 
out of confining class work to a single department. 
One of these is the variety afforded as the classes 
change from grade to grade in passing. Coming in 
contact with new children from time to time is rest- 
ful. It also gives an opportunity for the study of 
new lives and characters, which is most helpful. The 
fact of accepting pupils from a teacher in another 
grade is an incentive to so teach that a comparison 
of the two teachers in the mind of the pupil may not 
be to the disparagement of the change. There isa 
corresponding stimulus in preparing the class for 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 43 


graduation to a higher grade. These changes un- 
doubtedly furnish a great and much needed stimu- 
lus to better teaching work. Having a regular 
course of study by which to guide one’s work isan ad- 
vantage which a teacher who is looking for means by 
which to reach greater efficiency will not be slow to 
appreciate. The greatest good of all, though, comes 
from constant familiarity and practice in training 
minds of a certain age, which practice produces 
everywhere the most efficient type of teacher the 
world has ever known. 

In the professions, in the industries—everywhere 
—the world is looking for people who have done cer- 
tain things over and over again, until they practical- 
ly know all about the doing of these certain things 
that can beknown. These people are called experts. 
The Sunday school which allows its teachers to be 
constantly changing from one division to another 

-rarely produces an expert. Its teachers are largely 
tyros. We have too many tyros, and need experts. 
The plan outlined produces them. 

The class is equally the gainer by this system. The 
little folks are fond of change, to begin with, and al- 
ways look forward to it with pleasant anticipation. 
Then there is an advantage in finding a trained in- 
structor with new methods at every step. There is 
something new to think about. There is less of mo- 
notony and less of probability of the pupil tiring of 
the class and of the school. In the slow develop- 
ment of a class which is for several years in the hands 
of a single teacher there is danger of the teacher for- 
getting that food suitable for children is not suitable 
for young men and young women—that the day 
when the Jittle Bible story is all-sufficient is past, and 


Tke 
Cail for 
Experts. 


How the 
Cless 
Gains. 


Above all, 
Thoroughly 
Grade the 
Teachers. 


About 
Prelimi- 
nary 
Grading. 


44 GRADING THE 


that rapidly maturing minds are waiting to be fed 
and trained. Many a good class has died because as 
adults its members were insufficiently fed, through a 
misapprehension of changed conditions. In the 
graded school this danger is obviated. 

These observations point to a necessity of the 
grading of the available teaching force which 
should be even more thorough than the grading of 
the pupils. There is this difference, however: The 
assignment of a number of accepted teachers is not 
so much on the ground of their relative knowledge as 
compared with each other as because of personal 
characteristics which adapt them more particularly 
as instructors to the several grades of the school. 
Who shall say, after inspecting the Primary room, 
the Junior and Intermediate classes, and the depart- 
ment of adults, that more talent is needed in one 
place than in another? Relative natural talent and 
mental furnishing are only two out of a number of 
considerations which the superintendent or commit- 
tee of assignment must have in mind. 

It is the preliminary grading of teachers that af- 
fords the most puzzling feature of their assignment 
to duty. Once in place, there is little further diffi- 
culty. However, careful consultation with them 
individually, a review of their experience, a recalling 
of the peculiar aptnesses which they have shown in 
different situations, will usually combine to furnish a 
satisfactory solution of this problem which comes up 
so early in preparing for the introduction of the new 
system. By no means the least of the advantages 
necessarily attending the inauguration of grading is 
the way in which it brings home to teachers the meas- 
ure of their practical incapacity and stimulates to 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 45 


higher effort. A very good committee should give 
the grading of the teachers their special care 
The natural tendency of careful grading will be 
found to be the numerical increase of the force of Increasing 


teachers required. This may not work out in every ‘¢ 
. . Teaching 
school, and yet schools in which more teachers are Force 


not called for because of this are exceptional. This 
points to the subject of teacher training, which is an 
indispensable adjunct of graded work—a subject 
treated in the chapter on the Normal class, in anoth- 
er part of this book. * 

No Sunday school can safely undertake careful 
grading which does not sustain a Teachers’ Meeting. 
This meeting is of inestimable value in any Sunday 
school, but is indispensable if grading is contem- 
plated. The use of the Teachers’ Meeting will be 
discussed in a separate chapter. 


Children 
and 
Grading. 


Specific 
Lessons at 
Specific 
Times. 


16 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER VIII. 


CONSIDERATIONS IN GRADING PUPILS. 


The feasibility of grading teachers has already 
been discussed. Let us see how the system affects 
the pupils. 

Children are accustomed to close grading in every- 
thing else of an educational character with which 
they are connectcd. This is not with them the in- 
troduction of a new principle, for it is something 
with which they are thoroughly familiar in the day 
school, and which they naturally expect as an ele- 
ment in education. It is the older people, in whose 
school days modern ideas of grading were not devel- 
oped, who in particular fail to see and fall in with 
the idea. 

Recognizing the correctness of the principle of 
grading in everything else in which they are taught, 
the children get the idea that the Sunday school, 
because of this difference, is an affair in which it 
signifies but little whether they learn or not. Ac- 
customed as they are to having specific lessons to 
learn at specific times, an institution in which there 
is nothing of this kind comes to be regarded as of 
slight importance, until as they approach manhood 
and womanhood their respect for it has grown less 
and less, and a time arrives when they are retained 
in their classes with difficulty, if they do not alto- 
gether turn their backs on the school. In looking 
for reasons why it is so difficult to hold the older 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 47 


young people in the Sunday school it seems sin- 
gular that the insufficiency and the inefficiency of the 
teaching are rarely cited as having any appreciable 
bearing on the case. 

The children need the stimulus of definite things 
to learn, and the definite evidence of such things 
having been learned. Rewards such as may be 
useful in affecting regularity of attendance, etc., 
cannot be introduced with propriety or with good 
results in connection with attainment. The grad- 
ing of the school and the establishing of courses of 
study, however, furnishes occasions for the issuing 
of certificates or diplomas, or the visible passing 
from grade to grade, all of which is in exact accord- 
ance with the traditions of school life, appeals to 
the pupil as practicable and sensible, and satisfies 
the requirement that there shall be both an end and 
a positive way by which the end may be reached. 

The bright pupil in the day school, accustomed 
to finding the exercise of his talents as a student 
result in his being classed with pupils beyond his 
age, sits listless in the Sunday school because of 
the lack of similar recognition, and soon discovers 
that no matter what he may do an older boy who 
knows much less stands away above him in classi- 
fication. As a result he becomes discontented, 
stops short off in the development of a man who 
might some day become a power in the Sunday 
school and church, and later as a talented young 
professional man considers the Sunday school a 
place for only lazy or dull people. Where are the 
most of the young professional men of the country, 
of religious families, as regards Sunday school and 
church activities? 


The 
Stimulus 
of the 
Definite. 


A Point 
Against the 
Sunday 
School, 


About the 
Dull Boy. 


Stimulating 
Attend- 
ance. 


48 . GRADING THE 


In the ungraded school the dull boy finds no 
stimulus to exertion. If he can barely make out 
to read, the development of his physical person and 
the increase of his years will transfer him step by 
step to the higher divisions without further effort. 
Study is distasteful, and as it serves no purpose 
as far as his recognized standing among his fellows 
is concerned, he bothers himself but little about it. 
In the day school this same boy, who has in him 
all the stuff of which the very best and most useful 
men may be made, must work if he would hold 
his visible grade, and this necessity keeps him within 
the reach of his fellows. Place the same necessity 
before him in the Sunday school, and the same 
result will follow. He will stay with his class. 
Do not both the classes of boys mentioned know 
away down in their hearts that the Sunday school 
as we find it now is not honest with itself or with 
its pupils as regards the position of the latter in 
the classes? And, knowing this, does not the 
school suffer in their esteem? ze 

Another beneficial effect of the stimulus of defi- 
nite work is manifested in the attendance. Chil- 
dren who are associated in day school in certain 
classes and studies form a fellowship which may 
without difficulty be transferred to the carefully 
graded Sunday school. A careless girl or boy 
here and there is swept into the column of develop- 
ing young people who without this graduation with 
their fellows from grade to grade would be missed 
from the Sunday school altogether. It is the tes- 
timony of graded school workers that this is the- 
usual result. 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 49 


But, says an objector, this will drive out of the 
Sunday school many an illiterate, naturally slow, 
incapable child, who cannot possibly keep within 
the classification of children of the same age. Will 
this be a new development, or can it be set down 
as a consequence of careful grading? In the hit- 
or-miss classification of schools as we find them 
has there not always been in the infant class the 
child a head taller than the others? Does not the 
Intermediate department invariably contain a 
boy here and there who can with ease carry off 
one of his fellows under each arm? Is the physi- 
cal giant a rarity among the advanced pupils? We 
have always had these odd pupils, and what have 
we done with them? 

We want to do with them under the advanced 
system just what we have done with them before, 


only neglecting them less and looking after them 


with more painstaking, loving care. The teacher 
has always had to favor as far as practicable pupils 
of this character. Other pupils recognize this 
necessity to an extent, and will usually look with 
complacency on the special efforts of the teacher 
to keep such pupils in line. Thoughtless boys 
and girls are sometimes inclined to make it unpleas- 
ant for the plodders, but this is no new develop- 
ment. If the tactful teacher will visit such pupils 
privately, and help them in the preparation of 
their mare difficult lessons, the result will be marked, 
and this, together with passing them upward on 
the bare satisfaction of the stipulated conditions, 
which most pupils will achieve by a good margin, 
will do much to obviate the difficulties of the case 
No pupil is likely to more appreciate a certificate 


Not 
New, 
After 
All. 


A 

Natural 
Way 

out of a 
Difficulty. 


A Possible 
Choice of 
Evils. 


50 GRADING THE 


of advancement than this one, provided his personal 
interest can be aroused; and this end is worth all 
the extra effort which the teacher can put forth. 

In this point, nevertheless, the objector has 
brought forward the greatest difficulty connected 
with the grading system. It isa difficulty, in spite 
of all efforts to remove it. However, it is not much 
greater than under the old plan, and it is even 
better to continue to lose an occasional pupil as 
before, as much to be regretted as such a result may 
be, than to reject a plan which is certain to bring 
to the Sunday school, as no other plan has ever 
done, the greatest good to the greatest number.. 

It is not generally proposed to introduce the 
grading system in detail in the Bible class division 
of the Sunday school. It is here, if anywhere, 
that the scheme is likely to prove impracticable in 
many of its phases. When people have gone past 
their school days, and cease to be in touch with 
regulations requiring study, their attention to any- 
thing educational is more of an incidental character. 
Therefore the grading of the school must be greatly 
modified when this class of attendants is reached. 
A few years under the graded system, though, 
develops a kind of Bible classes the Sunday school 
has not before known, 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 51 


CHAPTER IX. 
LOCATING PUPILS. 


Outside of the Bible class division, which will 
not be discussed in this connection, Sunday school 
classes should not be large. This is especially true 
in the carefully graded school. It is better that 
the range be from six to ten members to the class, 
if circumstances will allow such division. The 
size of classes is to some extent necessarily contin- 
gent upon the number of good teachers available, 
as even large classes with good teachers are pref- 
erable to better proportioned classes in poor hands. 
The indifferent teacher is sometimes a necessary 
evil, but should not be employed unless classes are 
so large and unwieldy as to demand division. 

It may always be taken for granted that a well 
managed Sunday school will grow. It is therefore 
better in organizing or reorganizing to have the 
classes arranged below the size limit rather than 
full, sometimes even in skeleton form—provided 
the necessary teachers are at hand. The evident 
abundance of room affords an incentive for class 
missionary work, and the building up of the skel- 
eton class. If the school is to be closely graded 
the pupils should be so divided and subdivided as 
to avoid a wide range of individual attainment in 
a single class. The ability to carry such division 
as far as desirable is contingent upon the size of 
the school, it being sometimes necessary in a small 
school to include in a single class pupils who would 


Organizing 
in 

Skeleton 
Form. 


An Oppor- 
tunity for 
Study. 


The 
Day 
School 
the 
Key. 


52 GRADING THE 


not otherwise be graded together. In large schools 
there are often more pupils of a single grade than 
can well be taught in a single class. In such cases 
there may be two or more classes of the same sex 
and grade, it being remembered that outside of 
the Primary room and Bible classes it is better that 
the sexes be in separate classes. 

Reorganization furnishes the opportunity for 
studying the situation and arranging the classes 
symmetrically. Pains should be taken to do this 
very thoroughly all over the school at the time of 
the adoption of graded work. This done, it remains 
to exercise care in the assignment of new pupils 
and in promotion from grade to grade. Laxness 
at this point will result in almost irremediable con- 
fusion, and invites failure for the entire undertaking. 

As the new pupil enters the Sunday school, a 
glance and a brief question or two usually suffice 
for a decision by the assigning officer as to where 
to place him and what “quarterly” to give him. 
In the graded school the investigation must go 
farther. A thorough preliminary examination is 
not feasible, and an offhand assignment is not to 
be thought of. Questions about special biblical 
attainment are framed and asked with difficulty 
under the circumstances, and envelop the whole 
interview in embarrassment for the pupil. A per- 
tinent and proper inquiry in the case will bring 
out the standing of the newcomer in the day school, 
and in the absence of further positive information 
this may furnish the needed cue. Circumstances 
may sometimes suggest the mention of age as a 
chief factor, but it is preferable that the matter be 
decided without reference to this if possible. If 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 53 


there are two or three classes of the same grade it 
is well to learn whether the applicant has friends 
and associates in either, locating him accordingly. 

The importance of care right here cannot be too 
strongly emphasized. It should first be ascertained 
whether the proposed membership in the Sunday 
school is expected to be permanent. It should be 
assumed without mentioning it that the whole 
question of assignment is expected to be in the 
hands of the officer, and it should be settled by 
that individual without apparent hesitation, unless 
the pupil himself should introduce his preferences. 
If these nick with the proprieties of the case the 
course is plain. If they clearly place the pupil 
where he should not go, a little friendly reasoning 
will frequently settle the matter satisfactorily. If 
persistent in wishing to enter the wrong class the 
adjustment may require some effort. It will be 
recognized, though, that the voluntary applicant 
for membership in the Sunday school is usually 
easily dealt with in the matter of location. It is 
those whom special friends bring who are located 
with the greatest difficulty. All of the interviews 
referred to, if conducted pleasantly and with tact, 
are mutually enjoyable and satisfactory. 

When not running counter to other considerations, 
the social preferences of children may always be 
recognized to advantage, although for obvious 
reasons it is best not to consult with them about 
these preferences. Care should be taken, always, 
not to create social lines, and, above all, to quietly 
obliterate them when accident or design has devel- 
oped them. The class is a little democracy, over 
which the shadow of caste should never be thrown. 


A Task 
Requir- 
ing 
Firmness 
and 
Tact. 


Care as 
to 
Social 
Lines. 


A Variety 
of 
Irregulars. 


Perfect 
Grading 
in the 
Primary 
Room. 


54 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER X. 


IRREGULAR PUPILS. 


Irregular pupils are of several kinds. There are 
those who join the school after the introduction of 
grading, and who are too advanced or too old for 
the Primary room. Another contingent is made 
up of those who are members right along, but who 
are irregular in attendance and cannot be depended 
upon for regular or consecutive work. Then there 
are those who, through accident, sickness or ab- 
sence from home, are seriously interfered with 
in their work. A fourth variety “happen in” 
from time to time, or wander from school to school 
in migratory fashion, affording no school an op- 
portunity of doing anything substantial for them. 
What is to be done with all of these pupils? 

At the inception of grading it is probable that 
the only really perfectly graded part of the school 
will be found in the Primary room. It is possible 
here to start out with things just as they should 
be. The little folks are easi'y divisible on lines 
of attainment, and their promotion from grade to 
grade comes about in an easy and natural way. 
As the years go by, and these same children who 
began at the beginning advance they will naturally 
form a nucleus of well graded pupils in every 
division of the school. Conditions somewhat simi- 
lar, but less perfect, can be established at the start 
in the Junior classes, something of class symmetry 
being lost, however, as the school grades upward. 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 55 


There has been difficulty from the start in getting 
pupils in the Junior and Intermediate departments 
who are not graduates from the lower grades prop- 
erly classified. Conditions here, under these cir- 
cumstances, are seldom ideal. Teachers and officers 
are compelled to be satisfied with approximations 
to what they desire. It is too much to claim that 
immediate results in these departments can be 
more than relative. It is to these classes thus 
situated, that the ‘‘ irregulars” are to be added, 
in the hope that they may be assimilated. 

Reference was made in the last chapter to the 
entrance of the new pupil, and some considera- 
tions mentioned in connection with his disposal by 
the assigning officer. While not a disturbing el- 
ement in the sense of being unwelcome, his coming 
nevertheless is a very puzzling factor in class work, 
the problem being different in the case of each new 
pupil received. How shall the teacher treat the 
newcomer in respect to the unsatisfied require- 
ments of the particular grade through which the 
elass is then passing—taking it for granted that the 
novitiate has not been trained in any Sunday 
school, much less in a graded one? 

In the first place, the pupil thus received must 
be placed in a class of an age corresponding more 
or less nearly to his own. A difference of a year 
or two may not signify, though the discrepancy 
should be as slight as circumstances will allow. 
While he and they are side by side in the day school, 
the boys of his own age in the Sunday school know 
a good deal more about the things taught in the 
Sunday school than he does. He must make good 
this deficiency if he is to remain with them and 


How 
about 
the 
New 
Pupil? 


Keeping 
the 

Pupil with 
his 
Fellows. 


A Good 
Find for 
the 
Pupil. 


A Very 
Difficult 
Case. 


56 GRADING THE 


pass with them into the next higher classification. 
What shall the teacher do? 

The case is a plain one. The teacher should 
arrange at the earliest possible date for a visit to 
or from the new pupil. Let the situation be fully 
discussed, the requirements made just as light as 
is consistent with satisfying the conditions, and 
a program for making up the missing lessons 
prepared. Let this program cover only such things 
as are necessary to passing into the next grade. 
This work will be easy—if the teacher will join the 
pupil in its prosecution. A few interviews, which 
should not be discussed before the class, will prob- 
ably suffice. At the same time a good of at least 
equal value has been accomplished: The pupil has 
found the teacher a helper and friend, and that 
right on the threshold of their acquaintance. Pupils 
whose work has been interfered with by sickness 
or absence from home may be helped into good 
lesson standing in the same way. No prescribed 
course of Sunday school study, of any other than 
an elective character, should be so heavy or so ex- 
acting that omissions cannot be made good. 

The pupil who is irregular in attendance, and 
cannot be induced to take up and prosecute steady 
work, presents a trouble not so easily compassed, 
These pupils, like sin, are always with us, though 
persistent effort will keep their number small. 
There is now and then a case of a wholly incorri- 
gible character. Two kinds of treatment suggest 
themselves: One is to allow these pupils to suffer 
the penalty of their negligence by remaining in 
their grade when their fellows are promoted; the 
other, which cannot be recommended, is to form 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 57 


separate mixed classes for them, from pupils of 
their kind. To admit them to promotion along 
with those who rise by merit is to take all the mean- 
ing out of promotion, and entirely defeat the pur- 
pose of grading. This is not to be thought of;— 
better the unfortunate alternative of their leaving 
the school, though this alternative course would 
perhaps be adopted only in occasional cdses. 

Little or nothing can be done for the migratory 
pupil in the graded Sunday school, any more 
than in the Sunday school of ordinary type. Effort 
is to be made, of course, to bring him in line for 
better things; but the special good in the premises 
is the spiritual gymnastic for the worker, rather 
than the hope of really reaching and helping the 


vagrant. 


The 
Real 
Standard. 


A Confu- 
sion of 
Standards. 


58 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER XI. 
FORMING AND STARTING. 


Education of whatever kind has but one standard 
—attainment. We cannot properly classify the 
Sunday school on what the pupil is, who he is, his 
relation to the church, or any other consideration 
except what he knows. The Bible is our text-book, 
and the pupil of less than adult years is supposedly 
placed in a division of the school corresponding 
to his knowledge of that book, as ascertained by 
certain tests to which he is subjected. Age should 
not be considered in this connection further than 
as an indication of where, under ordinary conditions, 
a pupil should be found. Within a certain depart- 
ment, for convenience in arranging its classes, 
divisions of those admitted to that department 
may be made with some reference to age. That 
is to say, let departmental lines be drawn strictly 
on attainment, with some limitations specified 
later, and let divisions within departments be reg- 
ulated to some extent by convenience. 

Other considerations should obtain to only a 
limited extent in classifying the school. The one 
cited is simple, easily understood, and will give 
a more satisfactory and uniform organization 
throughout than can be secured on any other basis. 
To introduce other conditions as having more than 
a relative value is to complicate, to invite confu- 
sion, and endanger the success of the undertaking. 


Sunpay ScHOOL. 59 


The greatest drawback to successful Sunday 
school classification has been a comparatively 
close adhering to age as the standard of measure- 
ment. This for a long time seemed to be unavoid- 
able, and no other apparently practicable standard 
was available. This circumstance has complicated 
the difficulties surrounding the establishing of a 
correct basis for grading, and cannot be altogether 
ignored. Some attention is necessarily paid to 
age in this connection; but it should not in any 
case have more than a subordinate position in any 
plan formulated. Some suggestions as to how 
age limits may be incorporated into a course of 
study will appear in a later chapter. 

As usually divided the modern Sunday school 
has four departments—the Primary, the Junior, 
the Intermediate, and the Senior, besides the Nor- 
mal class. The four divisions named areas good 
as any, perhaps, and although age limits should 
hold only a secondary place, the ages in a practi- 
cable system of classification would likely be about 
as follows: Primary, up to about nine years; Junior, 
nine to fourteen; Intermediate, fourteen to eighteen; 
Senior, eighteen and above, That is to say, grad- 
uation from one grade to another would naturally 
be expected at about the age limits named—nine, 
fourteen and eighteen—although the precocity 
or slowness of pupils may strain the limits either 
way. 

The number of departments is made small, in 
order to make it possible for schools of all sizes to 
be included in general educational plans. Though 
a school may be so small that a department may 
mean only a class, this simplicity of division places 


The Age 
Standard 

a 
Drawback. 


The 
Four 
Departe 
ments. 


Dividing 
the School 
into 
Grades. 


60 GRADING THE 


it side by side with the large school in working to 
a common end. Further division is a matter of 
detail, regulated by the size and needs of any par- 
ticular school in question. In a school barely 
large enough to cover the organization of the four 
departments a grade would practically mean a term 
of years equal to the length of time covered by the 
department to which the grade belongs. Such 
schools face the difficulty of being unable to furnish 
within the departments enough classes to properly 
represent the varying attainments of pupils who 
need closer classification. This places the very 
small school at a decided disadvantage. The only 
available remedial measures are to make the classes 
as small as the number of suitable teachers will 
allow; for each teacher to cover a wider range of 
work than under ordinary conditions; and for a 
special campaign of effort to be inaugurated to 
increase the size of the school. If composed of 
the best of “stuff” (and that kind of “‘stuff” is often 
found in the very small schools), the sponsors for 
the school will usually be able to compass this ob- 
stacle. Where a school is large enough to allow 
even two classes to a. department the situation is 


‘greatly improved, and where there can be a class 


for every year in the course the problem of classi- 
fication is solved. 

In the practical application of a scheme of grad- 
ing the time in each of these departments should 
be subdivided into periods of one year each, as a 
matter of convenience in classifying the work. 
As already stated, this application is feasible where 
a school is large enough to furnish a number of 
classes equal to the number of years in the course. 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 61 


Nor does this require a very large school, a mem- 
bership of from eighty to one hundred usually being 
sufficient for the purpose. Here is a scheme which 
will be found to work well: Let children up to the 
age of four years be included in the Cradle Roll, and 
call this Grade 1. The Beginners’ Course naturally 
follows, covering two years, and including Grade 2 
and Grade 3. Both of these divisions naturally 
belong to the Primary department, which may 
also include the three years following, bringing 
the child up to the age of nine years, and completing 
Grade 4, Grade 5 and Grade 6. Passing into the 
Junior department, covering five years up to four- 
teen, Grades 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 are added. If four 
years are assigned to the Intermediate department, 
this provides for Grades 12, 13, 14 and 15. On 
this plan the Normal class becomes Grade 16. 

This scheme is suggested because it is simple and 
workable. Any one of a dozen other schemes may 
be adopted which will prove as good. It is not a 
question of the plan of work so much as a plan of 
work. Let divisions and subdivisions be made in 
any feasible way so that they embrace the contem- 
plated work in comprehensive form. Then let 
the adopted scheme be adhered to in close detail 
by every teacher and officer in every department 
of the school. 

The Bible class division will always contain many 
people who have not graduated from the lower 
divisions, but will be constantly receiving accessions 
from that source. Adults should be admitted 
from the outside without regard to attainment. 
The graded school is intended for the training of 
the rising generation. The Sunday school must 


Several 


A 
Workable 
Scheme, 


Admitting 
to the 
Bible 
Classes, 


The 

Place 

of 
Beginning. 


62 GRADING THE 


care for the adults of the neighborhood in other 
ways, discussed in other pages of this book. A 
Sunday school conducted on the graded system 
must also have a Normal class, which is discussed 
in another chapter. 

As stated in the preceding chapter, grading must 
begin among the Primary pupils. The basis of 
the whole system rests in their department. Perfect 
alignment can be formed right here, and this can 
be tentatively carried out in all the higher grades 
of the school in after years, so far as it shall then 
be composed of those who thus met with the 
principle of grading on the threshold of their Sunday 
school career. There need be no hesitation in laying 
out positive work for the Primary period, proper 
care being taken to insure simplicity, variety and 
attractiveness. 

In forming the other divisions of the school re- 
quirements for admission to the several grades 
should be so arranged in the beginning as to disturb 
as slightly as possible the positions held by pupils 
at the time grading is introduced. To this end 
the initial requirements should be such as will not 
cause pupils to be retrograded. That is to say, 
the more stringent grading regulations to be en- 
forced after the work is well under way should be 
waived at the start. A pupil should not be shifted 
at this point as to his position, if such shifting can 
be avoided. In the beginning it seems to the pupil 
that the school management is establishing the 
conditions which regulate his initial standing; 
while he can readily see that his future position 
will be a matter of his own creation, in which he 
can see the reasonableness of his being governed by 


SunpDAy SCHOOL. 63 


the results of his own work. Such changes as closer 
classification calls for should consist in promotions 
of the better equipped pupils, rather than in the 
retrograding of their less studious fellows. This 
will be comparatively easy in large schools, where 
comparisons of pupils are not sharply drawn by 
circumstances, but will require much tact where 
a paucity of pupils magnifies the difficulty of form- 
ing new classes. 

Graded work affords a rare opportunity of placing 
special incentive before, the pupil. Courses of 
study and methods of work may be so arranged that 
there is always something in evidence which beckons 
the pupil to come up higher. The work of each 
grade may be so enriched that all will feel that there 
is something better ahead. This idea may be espe- 
cially promoted in lines of elective work, as well 
as in the regular curriculum, and is a matter of the 
greatest importance. The ability to afford legiti- 
mate variety in lines germane to the studies in 
hand is largely a matter of conditions and environ- 
ment, and this is another argument for giving to 
the work in hand a special local adaptation, 


An Oppor- 
tunity 

for 
Incentive, 


General 
Primary 
Depart- 
ment 
Suggese- 
tions, 


64 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER XII. 
THE WORK OF THE DIVISIONS. 


What shall be the metes and bounds by which the 
departments of the graded Sunday school are to be 
limited? Herewith is submitted only a brief gener- 
alization, leaving matters of further detail to be ar- 
ranged by each school, in connection with the course 
of study to be adopted. 

1. The Primary department should by all means 
be in a room by itself, or at least in a space screened 
off from the remainder of the school, the latter plan 
of separation being practicable almost anywhere. 
This department naturally begins with the Cradle 
Roll pupils, which should include the little folks un- 
able toread. When able to read the Primary pupils 
should be classified for a slightly different line of 
work, in which, while not making it so prominent as 
to be burdensome, practice in reading should receive 
special attention. Ifthe building is so arranged that 
the whole Primary department can be thrown to- 
gether at will, and without interfering with the main 
school, the work of the teachers will be greatly facil- 
itated. This will especially aid in the singing, which 
should be a prominent exercise, and which, along 
with permitting the little ones in some way to slight- 
ly change positions from time ta time, will prove 
very restful. 

Object lessons in great variety should be present- 
ed tothe classes throughout this department, and 
muen should be made of everything which may ap- 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 65 


peal to the eye. While here the children may be 
familiarized with the Bible stories and biographies 
which must at some time be woven into the life of 
every one who is to become a lover of the Word. 
Give wide range to the imagination, and remember 
that the mind of the child may be filled with high 
ideals whose influence will elevate to the end of the 
longest life. Easy memorizing is also in place, such 
as golden texts, brief and simple scripture quotations 
and such exercises as may be provided in the course 
of study. General memorizing should not be urged 
so strongly at this step, though, as a little later, re- 
membering that the mind of the child of very tender 
years is a better storehouse for people, places and in- 
cidents than for principles and doctrines. When 
graduated from this department evidence of sub- 
stantial work done will be as abundant as at any oth- 
er point in the upward progress of the pupil. 

2. The Junior department opens a much wider 
field. At a corresponding point in the day school 
the pupil has taken on such new studies as mark an 
important era in his life. In the Sunday school 
there should be sufficient change to show the pupil at 
once that not only is that which is already learned 
clearly recognized, but that new and more important 
things are required of him. The pupil may now be 
expected to sit attentive and orderly throughout a 
well-conducted lesson of thirty or thirty-five min- 
utes, and is susceptible, in connection with conduct, 
to suggestions appealing to embryo manhood and 
womanhood. The ‘child’ has given place to the 
“boy” and the “girl,” which the individuals chiefly 
concerned like to have remembered when they are 
spoken of or addressed, At this stage an extremely 

= 


Suitable 
for the 
Primary. 


“Child” 
Obsolete 
—Enter 
“Boy” and 
“Girl,” 


The 
Great 
Period 
for 
Learning. 


Junior 
Days 

Are 
Anchoring” 
Days. 


66 GRADING THE 


juvenile style of teaching or an ultra petting manner 
of treatment is resented. We now have little men 
and women to deal with, and must keep that fact. 
ever in mind. 

The Junior period covers a part of the young life 
in which more is learned than in any other time, and 
should be marked by a change in the manner and the 
range of teaching keeping pace with the new condi- 
tions. Object lessons are still in place, but they 
have ceased to be extremely puerile, and are such as 
appeal more strongly to the adult. The pupil has 
reached a point where opinion has begun to assert 
itself, where he can to quite an extent give reasons 
for things, and where he can cite and comment on 
the strong and weak points of the characters appear- 
ing in the lessons. His capacity for easily memoriz- 
ing at this age is marvellous, and while this should 
not be overtaxed his mind can be stored with the 
treasures of scripture as at no other period of his life. 
Illustration strikes him quickly and forcibly, and his 
imagination, which is truer though no less vivid than 
in his Primary days, completes and appropriates the 
picture partially drawn. 

The graded system of Sunday school instruction 
appeals to the Junior pupil as it appeals to no one 
else. It is to him a profound stimulus, a developer 
of unlimited reach. It is exactly in line with his 
outside duties, and may with tact be incorporated 
into his ambitions. Under its influence he is antici- 
pative in his recitations to a degree never manifested 
by him in Bible study under other conditions. In 
short, its influence on young people at this stage in 
their Sunday school lives furnishes the only needed 
apology for its existence. Carefully and tactfully 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. ; 67 


interest the Junior pupil in the specific work which 
this system places before him, fall in with his aspira- 
tions to be recognized as something more than a lit- 
tle child, and much will have been done toward an- 
choring him for a higher life. Indeed Junior days 
are anchoring days, and the ranks of church mem- 
bership should be constantly swelling with earnest 
recruits from among these boys and girls. 

3. The Intermediate department marks the com- 
pletion of the regular school course up to the work of 
the adults. When made up of graduates from the 
the ranks of the Juniors its members may be said to 
possess at the beginning a much more general knowl- 
edge of Bible facts and circumstances than the aver- 
age member of the Bible classes under the old condi- 
tions. Intermediate work is intended to enlarge 
on this knowledge of facts, to form as thorough an 
acquaintance as may be with surroundings and con- 
ditions, to study the relations of cause and effect in 
life and duty, and to glean more fully from biogra- 
phy and incident the personal lessons they are in- 
tended to convey; while the horizon of study is 
widened, comparisons and analyses of individuals 
and motives are instituted, truths are grouped and 
general deductions made, and habits of reflection 
formed and strengthened. The Sunday school is not 
a place for the inculcation of hair-splitting dogma, 
but the simple doctrines of Christianity may be ex- 
plained and dwelt upon. A kind of review of that 
which has been learned in the Junior department 
should be incorporated, but in such a way as to bring 
out more forcibly the features just enumerated. 

4. This last department is an approach to ma- 
ture manhood and womanhood in the investigation 


The 
Broader 
Interme< 
diate 
Work. 


The 
Seniors. 


No 
Gradua- 
tion 
‘*From.” 


68 GRADING THE 


of truth, and graduation from this should furnish 
the school with a stalwart corps of Bible stu- 
dents invaluable in the sustaining of its higher lines 
of work. A diploma from this department should 
admit to the Normal class, and every such 
graduate should become a fixture in the ranks of this 
class or of the Bible classes, if not called in some 
way to serve the school. 

Right here let it be said that there should be no 
such thing as graduation from the Sunday school. 
All graduation should be from one part of it into an- 
other; and when its limited specified course of study 
shall have been completed the Normal class or the 
Bible class is the natural place for post-graduate 
work. ‘The days of the years of our Bible student 
pilgrimage are the days of the years of our natural 
lives. Any other limitation is unwarranted. The 
field of usefulness in these adult classes is unlimited. 
It is not only that which we learn and that in which 
we spiritually grow that compensates for our con- 
tinued pupilage, but that which by personal class 
contact we may impart to others, and that which by 
personal example we may induce them to undertake. 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 69 


CHAPTER XIII. 


FROM GRADE TO GRADE. 


The successful Sunday school must be symmetri- 
cal. It is only in its best form when there are no 
marked incongruities in the make-up of its classes, 
viewed from any practical standpoint. It is some- 
times necessary for the youth in his later “teens’’ to 
sit in class beside the patriarch of three-score-and- 
ten—but it is not nature’s way. People of all ages 
in the school will do their best work when associated 
with those of approximately their own age. It is 
much better to have illy assorted classes than not to 
make the Sunday school comprehensive in its reach, 
and yet where natural and easy conditions can be 
established the facilities for good work are multi- 
plied. 

One of the perplexities connected with the grading 
of the Sunday school is met with just here. Pupils 
vary so widely in faithfulness, industry and attain- 
ment that it seems almost impossible to assemble 
them in groups which will not contravene all ideas of 
propriety in the premises. Here, for example, is a 
girl of twelve who grades away above representative 
girls of sixteen—a kind of precocity which crops out 
here and there all over the school, to the embarrass- 
ment of teachers and superintendent. What is to be 
done about it? 

The remedy lies in having regular and special 
courses, supplemented in special cases by elective 
work, Let the regular course for any grade always 


The 

Need 

of 
Symmetry. 


Many 
Kinds. 


Minimum 
Ages in 
Promotion. 


70 GRADING THE 


be so plain and easy that the dullest pupil may be 
able to compass it. Have special courses covering 
the same period, of which bright pupils can avail 
themselves, and be prepared to meet all needs from 
the Primary room tothe Normalclass. Let the pu- 
pils in passing from grade to grade receive certifi- 
cates or diplomas suited to the courses which have 
been taken, just as the same thing is done in other 
educational institutions. In this way the pupil’s 
term of twelve or fifteen years in the graded part of 
the Sunday school will not be shortened, but his di- 
ploma when he enters the Normal class will record 
an altogether different achievement from that of his 
less studious fellow. In this way different meas- 
ures of work may be adjusted to a common plan. 
There may very properly be a measure of flexibil- 
ity as to the age limits at which pupils may pass from 
grade to grade; yet this flexibility should have such 
fixed limits as will preserve the class symmetry of the 
school. Such variation should be allowed as will 
furnish to the pupil a stimulus for better study, with- 
out leaving discouragement for others in his wake. 
Taking the natural age limits of the different de- 
partments as before discussed, I would establish a 
minimum age before reaching which a pupil could 
not pass into a higher grade. If, for instance, the 
usual time for entering the Junior department is at 
the age of nine years, I would place the minimum at 
eight. If the time of graduation from the Junior 
is fourteen, the minimum for entering the Interme- 
diate classes should be thirteen. If the approxi- 
mate time for completing the Intermediate course is 
at eighteen, seventeen should be the minimum for 
going into the Senior class. Let those who sooner 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 71 


complete the various steps be given extra elective 
work, as suggested, which even then will allow them 
to gain in time on the regular work. This will at the 
same time prevent the personal make-up of the 
school becoming distorted from the standpoint of 
age. 

Those who have had ‘anything to do with special 
class work in the Sunday school will testify that it 
has been their best and most satisfactory work. The 
graded Sunday school affords opportunities for these 
more attractive studies that have never been known, 
and through these opportunities the teacher’s great 
opportunity must come. The pupil needs above all 
things to realize that the Sunday school is the open 
door to rich treasures of knowledge, and to be cured 
of the prevalent impression that it is capable of noth- 
ing bright, original and fascinating. Elective work, 
recognized by special diplomas, can be made to infin- 
itely widen the Sunday school horizon. Special 
talent should be employed in every school in arrang- 
ing for such work. 


The 
Teacher’s 
Great 
Opportu- 
nity. 


A Day 
in the 
Calendar. 


Promotion 
Day a 
Special 
Occasion. 


72 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER XIV. 
MANNER OF PROMOTION 


Systematic promotion is an essential feature of 
any kind of educational work, and must of course be 
incorporated in the plans of a graded system in the 
Sunday school. As the grades are most easily ar- 
ranged on a yearly basis, promotion periods should 
be made annual as well. A time in the year should 
be decided on, chosen with reference to the environ- 
ment of the school, and the season when it is fullest 
in the matter of attendance. This date should be as 
firmly fixed as is Christmas or Children’s Day, and 
should be as prominently recognized in the school 
calendar. 

Promotion Day, or Commencement Day, or what- 
ever it may be called in a given school, should be 
made a special occasion. Its program should be 
special, without interfering with the regular lesson, 
and as attractive as may be. The brief program, 
like all Sunday school programs, should not be liter- 
ary, and should contain nothing in the way of ad- 
dresses except a few fitting words connected with 
the awarding of certificates and diplomas, recogniz- 
ing the work done, commending the participants, 
and emphasizing the importance of the occasion. 
The pastor and church officers should have just 
enough to do with the occasion to give it an official 
character. Flowers are nowhere more appropriate 
and significant than on Sunday school occasions, and 
if in season these may abound. The music should be 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 73 


plentiful and well chosen. Above all, the fullest at- 
tendance of the constituency of the church, and of 
the community in general, should be secured. 

The promotion of the individual pupil should be 
contingent upon the satisfying of established condi- 
tions. Promotion presupposes positive ground up- 
on which it may rest, and derives its value from hav- 
ing such a basis in fact. It is apparent that it must 
rest upon a degree of knowledge of things which may 
be known and are determinate, and not upon things 
indefinite and inferential. The examinations—both 
quarterly and annual—which precede the occasion 
should therefore be simple, direct and easily under- 
stood, and based upon questions naturally growing 
out of the lessons learned. In short, they should cor- 
respond in character somewhat with those of the day 
school, except that they should in most cases be less 
rigid. 

A scale of points will perhaps be necessary for the 
proper regulation of examinations a fixed minimum 
of which will be regarded as sufficient to allow the 
» pupil to pass. Seventy points out of a possible 100 
is a reasonable basis. It is a good idea just here to 
introduce attendance and faithfulness as elements in 
the case. For instance, if a pupil should make an 
absolutely perfect record in the year, missing no 
Sundays and never being late, and showing certifi- 
cates of attendance elsewhere when away from home, 
let an additional credit of say twelve points be given. 
If fifty good Sundays are recorded let the credit be 
ten points. If no more than three-fourths of the 
Sundays find the pupil in place, let a discount of five 
points be made, and if the number be reduced to 
one-half let ten points be taken off. A pupil being 


Promotion 
Always 
for 

Cause. 


Points. 


The Evie 
dences of 
Promotiva. 


Kinds of 
Certificases 
and 
Diplomas. 


74 GRADING THE 


present only twenty-six full Sundays and making an 
examination record of eighty points (an improbabili- 
ty for one so often absent) would still have seventy 
points left with which to make his grade. ~These de- 
tails can be arranged to conform to local conditions 
and the judgment of the management. 

The evidences of promotion, awarded on these oc- 
casions, should consist of certificates in passing from 
grade to grade, and of diplomas when promotion car- 
ries the pupil into a higher department, with a spe- 
cial diploma at the completion of the course and en- 
trance into the Normal class These documents 
should be neat in form and style, should be attested 
by the superintendent and the teacher of the pro- 
moted pupils, and should bear the seal of the school. 
The doing of everything in decency and in order, the 
dignifying of duties too often considered trivial, the 
imparting of character to things seemingly devoid of 
character—these are strong points in graded work. 

These certificates and diplomas must vary with 
the kind of course the pupil is taking, and the quan- 
tity of elective work done. The blank forms may be 
so prepared as to express these differences, which 
may also be emphasized by different colors in the 
seals attached. This idea is not a new one, and is 
already incorporated in the practice of some of our 
state Sunday school associations in their teacher 
training work. 

The awarding of special class honors, or the public 
recognition of pupils after a discriminating fashion, 
is to be deprecated. ‘The differences in achievement 
are shown by the certificates received, and the sim- 
ple announcement of these, without personal com- 
ment, should suffice. I am aware that some people 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 75 


object to the diploma system, because of possible ri- 
valries and heart-burnings; but investigation will 
show that any trouble experienced has grown out of 
injudicious competitive stimulation, and the pitting 
of one pupil against another for something which 
only one can get, The system here recommended 
possesses none of these features, and the wholesome 
stimulus afforded to each pupil is at the expense of 
no other pupil in the entire school. The avoidance 
of the senseless public invidious distinctions so often 
made between pupils, and the avoidance of the per- 
nicious habit of making the success of one the defeat 
of another, will remove every obstacle of this char- 
acter out of the way of Promotion Day and its whole- 
some effect on the school and on the community. 

In connection with all of this work a comprehen- 
sive and substantial register should be kept. Ido 
not know of any book especially designed for the 
purpose, but it should be sufficiently large to cover 
the work of a term of years. The progress of every 
pupil should be recorded, and a blank book can be 
ruled for the purpose with a pen and suitably colored 
inks. This book should be kept in a secure place on 
the Sunday school premises, and should always be 
accessible for inspection. In most cases it had bet- 
ter be kept by some one chosen for the purpose, and 
not by the secretary of the school. In nearly every 
school there is some one who will take special pride 
and interest in such work. In asmall school a teach- 
er or a pupil may doit. Ina large school a special 
officer may be required. In any case such a register 
will acquire a priceless value in a few years. 


Guarding 
Against a 
Bad 
Practice. 


A Graded 
Course 
Register. 


Multiplied 
Courses of 
Study. 


76 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER XV. 


COURSES OF STUDY. 


Thus far in the history of the movement for grad- 
ing the Sunday school the discussions of the subject 
have consisted largely in the presentation and anal- © 
yses of courses of study. This is the natural mani- 
festation of the interest felt in the all-absorbing ques- 
tion, What shall we study? As a result suggestive 
curricula are multiplying, with a possibility of pro- 
ducing confusion in the minds of those seeking the 
best. Some of those presented are quite simple and 
practicable, while an occasional curriculum is so 
heavy and complicated as to be forbidding. A num- 


- ber of authors have given the public the benefit of 


their studies in this line. A few of the religious de- 
nominations have issued courses of study, while oth- 
ers seem to have the matter under advisement. 

There is much hesitation among Sunday school 
workers of experience, in adopting or recommend- 
ing, without amendment, any of the courses of 
study so far submitted. On every hand are evi- 
dences of a disposition to continue to feel the way. 
The time for concerted action upon lines giving 
promise of securing general satisfaction has evident- 
ly not yet arrived. 

Two or three times in these pages have appeared 
words of caution against attempting toomuch. The 
same point need not be enlarged upon in this con- 
nection. A full enough course is needed to give the 
pupil a reasonable measure of employment, without 
either overtaxing him or trifling with his time. The 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 77 


design is to help him to know. With this object be- 
fore us it is understood that a little well learned is 
worth much more than a great mass of knowledge 
unassimilated. A great advantage of this simplic- 
ity, too, is that it is an adaptation to the measure of 
the dull pupil. It places this unfortunate individ- 
ual, who is overlooked in so many educational plans, 
squarely on his feet. At the same time, on this plat- 
form the brightest young people can stand, with 
special courses and elective work ready for any meas- 
ure of undertaking. 

Courses of study must be prepared with reference 
to the peculiarities of the various ages and grades of 
pupils. The ever-present question is, What may 
best be learned at this point? Some things to be 
learned from the Bible cannot be taught to children 
at all. Other lessons are the children’s own, Some 
things are to be pressed strongly in one grade, and 
barely touched upon in another. Some other things 
are equally attractive, equally important, and equally 
adaptable to all ages, the difference lying in the 
standpoints from which these things are taught, and 
the phases of the subjects presented. Less differ- 
ence in matter of instruction is sometimes required 
than in the manner in which instruction is imparted. 
Different things are deduced from the same lesson 
for the benefit of different grades. 

The order and manner in which Bible history, ge- 
ography, biography, literature and doctrine should 
be taught must be carefully considered; and when a 
conclusion has been reached one cannot be certain 
that some variation from the plan might not have 
been better. There is so much that is relative, so 
much that is indeterminate as to the wisdom of do- 


Do not 
Attempt 
too Much 


Adaptation 
to Ages 
and 
Grades. 


No Place 


Supple- 
mentary 
Work 
Necessary. 


78 GRADING THE 


ing things in certain ways, that one cannot afford to 
be dogmatic in the premises. When it has been de- 
cided that one thing is better than some other thing 
with which one is familiar in matters of this kind, it — 
is with the realization that there may be something 
else that is still better. One meaning of this is that 
what is best for one to work out with the facilities at 
hand would possibly be the better of amendment by 
another who undertakes the same thing under other 
conditions; which is another way of reiterating the 
lesson of local adaptation. 

Even a cursory effort at the preparing of a course 
of study at once brings out the necessity of supple- 
mentary work. If such systems as the Internation- 
al are adhered to as proposed, regular lesson study 
must of course be incorporated; but this alone is in- 
sufficient for the purpose. This insufficiency is both 
because of the difficulty found in adapting certain 
lessons to the general plan, and the necessity of hav- 
ing lines of study in which systematized information 
may be taught in a progressive and climacteric 
way. Supplementary work is the natural and al- 
together sufficient resource, as shown in the many 
ways in which its possibilities are brought out in the 
proposed courses of study. In fact it is the real ba- 
sis of graded instruction, its flexibility and adapta- 
bility covering requirements of every kind. 

Ordinary Sunday school teaching in our day has 
resulted in the evolution of periodical ‘thelps” for 
such phases of study as are contemplated by the 
courses of lessons in use. The development of this 
literature is one of the marvels of the day. Un- 
known a half century ago, it has reached a point 
where every religious denomination of consequence 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 79 


has a more or less complete line of periodicals wholly 
its own, used in its own Sunday schools, watching 
carefully over the interpretations of scripture placed 
before its young people, and doctrinally safeguard- 
ing its creed. All of this is supplemented by a few 
similar lines wholly undenominational in character. 
The courses of study presented in these pages do not 
contemplate any interference whatever with this es- 
tablished condition. Nothing so good can be done 
for regular lesson work as to make use of this same 
literature. No change is proposed except that a bet- 
ter use be made of it under these more stimulating 
conditions. 

For the supplemental work provided for these 
same ‘‘helps’” will be useful. As the pupils move 
from grade to grade other literature will be needed. 
But little of this additional literature is of a periodi- 
cal character, and much of it is issued by the denom- 
inational publishing houses themselves. The prose- 
cution of graded work to its legitimate ends will in- 
duce a much wider introduction of religious books 
than is ordinarily found in connection with Sunday 
school study, the present limited use of which class 
of books is to be deplored. 

The whole tendency of the multiplying courses of 
Sunday school study now being issued is to broaden 
the horizon of investigation. It is a most whole- 
some condition. 


Using Es- 
tablished 
Periodical 
Literature. 


Using 
Religious 
Books. 


80 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER XVI. 
THE NORMAL CLASS. 


As already specified elsewhere, membership in this 
class is the highest position in the graded Sunday 
school attainable by the pupil as a pupil. It is by 
all odds the most desirable place within the scope of 
the entire organization. The only drawback to 
Normal class membership is that such membership 
is always in danger of being short-lived, or at least 
of being seriously interrupted, since the kind of peo- 
ple of whom it is composed are likely to be called at 
any time to special responsibility elsewhere in the 
school. Many an officer or teacher who reads this 
paragraph covets the enjoyment of such work and 
relative rest as a Normal class affords—and who can 
blame him? The physician who wants to keep 
abreast of the times likes to suspend his practice and 
attend medical lectures from time to time. Similar- 
ly, many an official in the Sunday school would thus 
be the better of ‘‘attending the lectures’’in the home 
school once in a while, both as a rejuvenator and as 
a developer. What a pity such an experience is not 
more often feasible! If it ever becomes so it will be 
through the development of graded work. 

The natural membership of the Normal class is 
made up of graduates from the next department. 
Special pains should be taken to prevent these grad- 
uates from slipping away from the school, of which 
there is always more or less danger. Let them be 
anchored in the higher class if possible. Of this class 
the accumulating graduates essentially form the nu- 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 81 


cleus. Here the new ones meet such of those com- 
pleting the course in other years as are not drafted 
for special school service; and they thus together 
form an association which at this “‘commencement”’ 
time is especially needed. If the graduates can be 
held now through a reasonable period the work of 


years will be ‘‘clinched’’ and strengthened, and their- 


Sunday school character established, while every such 
holding widens the horizon of the school’s usefulness. 
If these people are lost now, the good accomplished 
is dwarfed, and the school loses an increment to its 
probable working assets to which it is clearly en- 
titled. Do not allow them to get away now. 

The Normal class is not to be made a holy of ho- 
lies, and yet there must be conditions of membership. 
Its doors must not be shut arbitrarily against those 
who have not taken the school course of study. Bi- 
ble students of adult years should always find a wel- 
come, and some of the best members of the organiza- 
tion may thus be secured. However, in schools suf- 
ficiently large to sustain general Bible classes beside, 
it is better to steer the representative careless adult 
into one of these, unless a specific preference for the 
Normal class is expressed. Things are expected of 
this class which will often discourage one wholly un- 
accustomed to study, while it is easy to suggest re- 
moval from Bible class to Normal class to one who is 
likely to profit by the change. 

If there is a “‘best’”’ teacher in the school that teach- 
er is needed by the Normal class. The choice of this 
teacher is a matter of the gravest importance. The 
ability to intelligently instruct is only one of many 
essential qualifications. He should not only com- 
mand respect for what he is and what he knows, but 


Holding 
School 
Graduates, 


The 
Normal 
Class 
Teacher. 


Meeting. 


82 GRADING THE 


should be selected because of staying qualities in 
looking after the details of the work, as well as in 
providing adequate instruction. The pastor or the 
superintendent is often called upon to take charge of 
this class. In either case it is unfortunate, although 
it Sometimes seems to be unavoidable. Either has 
enough to do without the addition of this wearing 
responsibility. One of the two is expected to con- 
duct the Teachers’ Meeting, and one cannot well 
handle both organizations without combining them 
—which is another unfortunate necessity. The Nor- 
mal class and the Teachers’ Meeting parallel each 
other in some things; but the one is incidentally the 
trainer of teachers for work, while the other deals di- 
rectly with teachers af work—things not incongru- 
ous, and yet not always workable together to good 
advantage. I have no hesitation, though, in urging 
that where they cannot be separately maintained 
and satisfactorily taught by good teachers they 
should be merged. 

It is better that the Normal class meet at the same 
hour as the school, for the reason that the multipli- 
cation of classes and meetings at other hours is a 
multiplication of the difficulties of Sunday school 
work. Asa general principle I would have no regu- 
lar outside hour for any Sunday school organization 
unless such arrangement is unavoidable. The Teach- 
ers’ Meeting comes in the category of the unavoid- 
able. The outside hour is the greatest of all the dif- 
ficulties connected with the maintenance of this 
meeting. If the Normal class be combined with it, 
the result is the decimation of class attendance, and 
the consequent defeat of some of the chief purposes 
of the organization. 


SuNDAY SCHOOL. 83 


If a consensus of opinion were asked for as to the 
greatest of all obstacles to Sunday school progress 
the universal reply would be that it lies in the diffi- 
culty of securing teachers. There have never been 
enough of available teachers, even discarding rea- 
sonable discrimination as to fitness. There has al- 
ways been a woful lack of qualification. These 
things have been and are true of Sunday school work 
in its crudest forms. They are doubly true when 
careful grading and systematic courses of study are 
contemplated. There is a ringing call for many, 
many more teachers, and immeasurably better 
teachers. Even were special grading unthought of, 
the demand for teacher training is imperative. 

I have already spoken of teacher training as an 
incidental work of the Normal class. While in a 
sense this training is incidental, in a larger sense it is 
fundamental. We must have teachers, and in order 
to have them we must make them, and this class is 
to be our factory.. Training in comprehensive in- 
vestigation, in analytical study, in the wholesome 
and attractive presentation of fact, in the selection 
of the thing to be taught, in resourcefulness in the 
use of incident and illustration, in the rounding up of 
truth, in the adaptation of teaching to the taught— 
all of this and much more belongs to the Normal 
class. A model class in the hands of a model leader 
should be a model-maker. Going from this class in- 
to the Teachers’ Meeting, with its text-book study of 
principle and method, its weekly wrestle with prob- 
lems of local development, its hand-to-hand contact 
with Sunday school life in all of its phases, the Nor- 
mal class student is the most promising of all novi- 
tiates in the ranks of teachers, 


Wanted— 
More 

and 
Better 
Teachers. 


This 
Class 

in 
Teacher 


Training. 


Elective 
Work. 


The 
Reserve 
Corps. 


84 GRADING THE 


The work of this class may be to quite an extent 
elective. That is to say, teacher and pupils may to- 
gether select special side studies germane to the pur- 
poses of the organization. The field is practically 
boundless, and affords such helpful variety as makes 
it comparatively easy to maintain interest. Several 
writers have contributed substantially to the possi- 
ble curriculum of the Normal class. Without dis- 
cussing their work in detail, I take pleasure in rec- 
ommending its careful investigation, 

In large Sunday schools it is possible to carry this 
work into further detail by establishing what is 
sometimes called a Reserve Corps. This is simply 
the setting aside of a number of trained people to be 
always ready for the call to serve as substitute teach- 
ers. The lesson is usually taught to the Reserve 
Corps a week in advance. The idea is admirable, in 
cases where it is feasible. 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 85 


CHAPTER XVII. 


EQUIPMENT FOR GRADING. 


It is a law of production that the most incomplete 
and unsatisfactory of all work is that which is done 
without proper tools. The representative Sunday 
school never needed good equipment so much as 
now. It is even more in demand in the graded Sun- 
day school. Fortunately for all concerned, equip- 
ment of almost any desired kind is now available, 
and at constantly decreasing relative cost. The 
Sunday school which really desires such equipment 
as its size and environment require can within a very 
reasonable period rise to the occasion. 

What is meant by adequate equipment is (1) plen- 
ty of Bibles, plenty of song books, plenty of the peri- 
odical literature used in connection with the work of 
the school; (2) maps, charts, blackboards, etc., both 
for class work and for general use; (3) especially 
prepared supplementary literature, as needed, (4) 
a Sunday school library. I would not class this last 
as animportant part of up-to-date equipment un- 
less it is much better made up and used to much 
better advantage than in even the better class of 
Sunday schools as we find them. If in the first 
three specifications the school is well cared for, 
there is less occasion for insisting upon the fourth. 

Good equipment is much more important than el- 
egant premises. As desirable as it is to have neat 
and well appointed rooms, handsome furniture, an 
attractive architectural exterior, etc., these things 


We Must 
Have 
Good 
Tools. 


The 
Meaning 

of 
Equipment. 


A Matter of 
Relative 
Import- 
ance. 


Good 
Equipment 
is Good 
Faith. 


Equipment 
Easily 
Possible. 


86 GRADING THE 


after allare secondary. Indeed they are often alto- 
gether beyond reach, and many of the best schools 
long for such luxuries in vain. The pupils know 
that such things are not available, and blame nobody 
for their absence. It is not so certain, though, that 
the absence of these other things, more or less of 
which are known to be obtainable if proper effort is 
made to secure them, is not mentally charged up 
against inefficient management. 

Good equipment is a visible proof of purpose. The 
tools to work with point unmistakably to work to be 
done. Equipment is a most effective invitation to 
neighborhood coéperation. Let it be understood 
that the school will secure everything needed as rap- 
idly as possible, even if accomplished slowly, and 
much has been done to give it local character. Such 
equipment as is possible is an expression of good 
faith. It is being honest with the pupil. While the 
pupil is asked to come in for instruction, here is prep- 
aration to adequately furnish that instruction. Pu- 
pils are asked to do good work, because the school has 
done its part in promoting such work. It is simply a 
fair and reasonable proposition. How seldom docs 
Sunday school management thus fully do its part! 

As already stated, equipment in our day is not a 
matter of enormous expense. In most cases the nec- 
essary outlay is a mere bagatelle as compared with 
the ability of the constituency which is to furnish it. 
That school is rarely situated in which this need can- 
not in some easy way be supplied. The necessary 
outlay for maps, blackboards, etc., is often much 
overrated. Because an undertaking looks a little 
difficult on the surface, responsibility is dodged, and 
the school suffers accordingly. It is overlooked that 


SuNpDAy SCHOOL. 87 


there is no occasion for buying everything at once; 
that equipment will be better appreciated and will 
be used to better advantage if added item at a time, 
while this plan of purchase will solve the problem of 
outlay. Equipping the Sunday school cannot be 
classed among the very difficult problems involved 
in its management. 

The matter of adaptation, to which I have several 
times referred, applies especially to equipment. The 
small school, in a single room, where no object can 
be at a great distance from the pupil’s eye, has no 
space and no use for a multiplication of globes, maps 
and blackboards. A few simple pieces, chosen to 
suit the size of the room, the wall space available. 
and the kind of work to be done, are all-sufficient, 
In this kind of school such helps to lesson work must 
be used in a general way, and the simpler and the 
plainer they are the better. On the other hand, in 
very large schools, any department of which is prac- 
tically a school in itself, where rooms are built with 
the exact uses to which they are to be devoted in 
view, it is not only necessary that there be more or 
less of duplication of equipment, but it may be espe- 
cially adapted to the various departments in a way 
not feasible under other conditions. These contin- 
gent matters can be decided only on the ground, and 
on the judgment of those who have the facts before 
them. 

Of what should equipment consist? I cannot en- 
ter into detail on this subject. There should be no 
occasion to emphasize the necessity of plenty of Bi- 
bles and song books. Everything else is contingent. 
I must, however, emphasize, without discussion, the 
yalue of good maps, and their very liberal use in les- 


Adapta- 
tion of 
Equipment. 


The Use 
of the 
Black- 
board. 


88 GRADING THE 


son work. The blackboard, once mastered, is per- 
haps ratable as first of all conveniences in import- 
ance. Every teacher and every superintendent has 
special use for the blackboard. There is a mistaken 
notion that one should be an artist, and able to han- 
dle colored chalk in bewildering combinations, in or- 
der to use the blackboard to advantage. Without 
disparaging skill in this line, for it is not to be de- 
spised, the greatest value of the blackboard lies in 
the outline lesson plan, the striking illustration, the 
presentation of contrasts, comparisons and groups 
of ideas, the massing of facts, analyses of things dif- 
ficult to understand, and so on to the end of the long 
list of things which will suggest themselves;—all fig- 
ured out in the presence of the class or school, The 
crudest exercise, in which attentive eyes are follow- 
ing the chalk in the fingers of the teacher, is worth 
many times the most artistic blackboard production 
placed before the class in complete form. The su- 
perintendent has no resource, I care not what he may 
have at command, equal to the blackboard for eatch- 
ing and holding attention. The teacher, above all 
others, needs the blackboard, the use of which should 
be taught in the Teachers’ Meeting. Its further dis- 
cussion here, though, is not germane to the subject 
in hand, 


Gm» 


SunpDAY SCHOOL. 89 


CHAPTER XVIII. 
USING THE TEACHERS’ MEETING. 


Perhaps no adjunct of the Sunday school has so 
vindicated its usefulness, or grown so rapidly and so 
substantially in importance in our time, as has the 
Teachers’ Meeting. Its position in Sunday school 
economy can hardly be unduly magnified. It is to 
the Sunday school what the prayer meeting is to the 
church. A well attended, deeply spiritual prayer 
meeting essentially means a good church. The right 
kind of a Teachers’ Meeting just as certainly means 
a good Sunday school. 

The Teachers’ Meeting is the Sunday school home 
circle. It is the unifier. It is the developer. It is 
the remover of obstacles, the lifter of burdens. It is 
the never-failing source of inspiration. It is, more 
than any other feature of the Sunday school, the 
guarantor of success. The wonder of those who re- 
ally know its value is how so many intelligent work- 
ers manage to get along without it. 

I want to be set down as a stickler for the fullest 
use of the Teachers’ Meeting. In my own work I 
have no hesitation in making loyal membership in 
this meeting, and attendance at its sessions, positive 
conditions of accepting the services of any teacher, 
even in the ordinary Sunday school. I have in some 
instances declined to appoint otherwise good teach- 
ers who proposed to ignore this highest and most im- 
portant of all the classes. A teacher who begins by 
attending Teachers’ Meeting, and then drops out, is 


Two 
Helpful 
Meetings. 


A Meeting 
for All 
Teachers, 


Attend, 
or Step 
Out. 


How 

this 
Meeting 
Vindicates 
Itself. 


90 GRADING THE 


left off the list at the end of the year. Experience 
teaches me that the superintendent should go far- 
ther: The teacher who, having ceased to attend this 
meeting, on being remonstrated with expresses in- 
difference about it, or the intention of taking no fur- 
ther part in it, should be relieved at once. Hereaf- 
ter, in any school of which I may have charge, hav- 
ing clearly announced the purpose in advance, I will 
promptly remove any teacher who from indifference, 
from absorption in other things, or from personal 
Pique, is recalcitrant on this point. 

The magnifying of the Teachers’ Meeting, and the 
erection and maintenance of a high standard in its 
exercises and in its positive requirements, have been 
of more value and assistance to me in Sunday school 
management than any and all the other things I 
have undertaken. I have had teachers go into the 
Teachers’ Meeting listlessly and in hesitation;—but 
if they have proven to be teachers of any value at all, 
they in all cases have come out of a term of such 
meetings much more efficient, and altogether ready 
for duty. The skeptical as to the utility of the or- 
ganization are invariably converted, and the “‘kick- 
er’? becomes the earnest supporter of school author- 
ity and plans. 

Did space permit, and were it germane to the sub- 
ject in hand, I would be glad to speak of my own 
rich experiences in the past year in the Teachers’ 
Meeting. Suffice it to say that these experiences 
have been personally helpful beyond measure. The 
visible development of absolute oneness among peo- 
ple unaccustomed to anything beyond a perfunctory 
semblance of unity; the conversion of timid specta- 
tors into cheerful participants; the universal mag- 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. gI 


nifying of the teacher’s office and responsibility; and, 
above all, the creation and strengthening of ties of 
love and sympathy ;—all of these must be personally 
realized in order to be appreciated. However, I 
must add in this connection, that when it is con- 
ceived that the most important business of the meet- 
ing is to discuss the Sunday school lesson, as import- 
ant as that is, the highest possibilities of the organi- 
zation are altogether misunderstood. 

The Teachers’ Meeting is of course a paramount 
consideration if the Sunday school is to be carefully 
graded. Every reason for its installation in the or- 
dinary school is greatly emphasized in the higher 
work. It is unnecessary to either cite or discuss 
these reasons. It will suffice to furnish an answer 
in part to the question, How may the Teachers’ 
Meeting be used to promote grading? 

First of all, when a general council of all the adults 
in any way responsible for the school shall have de- 
cided to inaugurate the system of grading, let the 
work be turned over entirely tothe Teachers’ Meet- 
ing. Leave all details until this point is reached; 
then let these be taken up and disposed of thorough- 
ly and completely. Let this meeting be the work- 
shop in which is worked out the how to do every- 
thing called for in every department of the school. 
Undertake nothing of a radical character until it 
shall first have been so discussed and explained as to 
be thoroughly understood by every one in any way 
involved in its execution. 

Bring all questions to this tribunal which are not 
wholly within the prerogative of the management. 
No plans can be formed which can completely fore- 
stall the unforeseen contingencies which will arise. 


Special 
Good 
Secured. 


The 
Sunday 
School 
Method 
Workshop. 


A Con- 
venient 
Tribunal. 


Combined 
Experience 
and 
Judgment. 


92 GRADING THE 


When these contingencies do arise they cannot be 
ignored, and usually their disposal cannot long be 
postponed. This weekly council furnishes the best 
of all ways out of such difficulties. Matters of cheer 
and developments of a discouraging character are 
alike suitable themes for the Teachers’ Meeting, and 
their discussion should be a part of its program. 

Grading will be prolific of problems calling for the 
exercise of tact and wisdom. The combined experi- 
ence and judgment of all concerned will be re- 
quired at many a turn—and even then judgment 
may sometimes be at fault. Plans of work and spe- 
cial exercises will be the better of being tested. Tri- 
al examinations will need to be conducted. Many 
little things almost impossible of settlement on the 
spur of the moment in the class hour will develop. 
What adequate disposal and adjustment of all of 
these is available in the absence of the Teachers’ 
Meeting? 

The weekly gathering of teachers is a place for spe- 
cific instruction. The teachers themselves form a 
class the teaching of which is more important than 
the teaching of any of the classes over which the sev- 
eral teachers preside. Grading presupposes a kind 
of work calling for the best of teaching, and empha- 
sizing the desirability of keeping abreast of the times 
in manner and method. The Teachers’ Meeting re- 
quires a leader capable of thus instructing the in- 
structors and leading the leaders. Such an individ- 
ual can usually be found, and when found will soon 
come to be rated as indispensable. 

Finally, let the Teachers’ Meeting be the place for - 
effectually settling all differences. Those who make 
the best teachers are rarely troubled with disagree- 


SunDAY SCHOOL. 93 


ments of any kind. Indeed a corps of teachers may 
be so chosen as to avoid special danger from this 
source. The would-be teacher known to possess a 
proneness for discord should be passed by in the or- 
ganization of the school. Yet when all precautions 
have been taken, honest differences of opinion may 
sometimes arise, resulting in divided counsels. These 
differences must be adjusted right here. In a long 
experience I have never seen a case which could not 
be soadjusted, and am sure that persistent incorri- 
gibility should be followed by the retirement of the 
recalcitrant. When the majority of the teachers 
have decided on a policy or measure its adoption 
should be made unanimous, and the school should in 
no case be made aware of a disagreement. An irrec- 
oncilable minority can better be spared than penmit- 
ted to exploit its opposition. A well-conducted 
Teachers’ Meeting is a safeguard almost absolute 
against troubles of this character. 


The 
Place 
for 
Settling 
Differ- 


Beware 
of 
*“Excep= 
tions.” 


Correct 
Time 
Adjust= 
ments. 


94 GRADING THE 


CHAPTER XIX. 


GRADING MEMORANDA, 


Beware of exceptions to any of the provisions laid. 
down in your plan of grading. In the first place, in- 
sist that teachers and officers do everything just as 
planned and agreed upon in general council Hav- 
ing guarded against the plan being too rigorous and 
exacting, see that as adopted it be adhered to in all 
details. “Exceptions” are dangerous, demoralizing. 
If one teacher can ignore the Teachers’ Meeting—the 
school’s home circle—no one can rightfully be held 
toits requirements. If one pupil is allowed to leave 
an easy condition of promotion unsatisfied, the door 
to all kinds of irregularities is thrown wide open. 
The only way is to stand by the specifications. 

In graded work not only the regular lesson is to 
receive attention, but more or less supplementary 
work is to be introduced. This means a division of 
the time usually allotted to the lesson. It is better 
to have this division regular, though not necessarily 
iron-clad. Too much flexibility invites irregularity, 
with its train of evils. To illustrate, if the class pe- 
riod is thirty-five minutes, and the lesson be given 
twenty and the supplementary work fifteen, it is bet- 
ter to keep up these proportions. This is only an- 
other way of saying that time adjustments, like ey- 
erything else, should be a part of the system. 

In the school review period the superintendent can 
sometimes increase interest by blackboard or other 
brief and striking graphic illustration of something 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 95 


connected with the immediate work of some special 
grade, changing this exercise from grade to grade as 
occasion may offer. This must of course be done ju- 
diciously and not too frequently, always guarding 
against the possibility of overdoing. By the way, 
graphic work is the richest of all aids to which one 
can have recourse in class instruction of whatever 
kind, and every teacher should make this a matter of 
study. 

The Sunday school library is in danger of falling 
into disuse, and in many places cuts but little figure 
in the attractions of the school or in its work. A re- 
sult of grading will be to sharpen the demand for 
helpful books, which those desiring them often can- 
not afford to purchase. Placing these books in the 
library, and calling attention to them, will increase 
the usefulness of that institution. 

General supplies of some kinds not usually found 
in the Sunday school are required by most of the 
courses of study recommended for use. It is better 
that these supplies be bought from the school treasu- 
ry, rather than that the pupils be asked to secure 
them. The expense is not great when taken care of 
in this way, but even a light expense is sufficient to 
deter the poorer children from entering the school, if 
such expense is to be individually borne. Some 
books may be needed occasionally which the pupil 
should own, and which will be valued more highly if 
paid for individually. The school will do well to buy 
such books in bulk, and make a liberal division of the 
cost with the pupil. 

The plan of graded work adopted by any given 
school should be written out succinctly and clearly, 
with courses of study, regulations and all details, and 


A Hint 
for the 
Superin- 
tendent. 


Using 
the 
Library. 


Supplies. 


The 
Lecture 
Idea, 


The 
General 
Bible 
Class. 


96 GRADING THE 


printed, copies being distributed amiong the mem- 
bers, with a liberal supply in reserve. It is still bet- 
ter to print the matter intended for each department 
of the school separately. 

A school is sometimes so fortunately situated that 
a good illustrated lecture, or series of lectures, along: 
the lines of work in its higher departments, can. be 
arranged. A Normal class is often in position to 
avail itself of this valuable kind of help. The result- 
ant good consists not only in the instruction received 
but in the advertising of the work—a consideration 
by no means to be ignored. 

The general Bible class has not been discussed in 
these pages, that class not being reachable, in most 
cases, by any system of grading. Such a class, how- 
ever, is needed in even the smallest school, and in 
schools of average size place is found for at least two 
or three such classes. The Bible class affords a Sun- 
day school home for adults who have not taken the 
full school course, those who are not so situated as 
to be able to study, and those (a large number) 
who feel that they: cannot enter a class which works 
to a standard of membership. It also provides for 
the floating attendance of adults, of whom there are 
more or less in every community. Such classes have 
a very important mission, may do a great deal of 
good, and should be thoroughly cared for in every 
Sunday school. 


SUNDAY SCHOOL. 97 


CHAPTER XX. 
WELL WORTH WHILE. 


Now that we have gone over the ground together 
in discussing a higher type of work in the Sunday 
school, the question naturally presents itself, Is it all 
worth while? The Sunday school is already coming 
into greater prominence, and is perhaps more widely 
useful than ever before. Then why substitute the 
strenuous for the passive, trying to do things with- 
out which the religious world has flourished so long? 

Is it worth while? 

Is anything worth while? It has already been 
shown that the Sunday school is losing out among its 
own friends because, educationally, it is not ‘‘hold- 
ing its own.’’ Whatever else may be said of it, there 
is no disputing that everything else educational is 
leaving it fartothe rear. ‘To occupy such a position 
in our day is prophetic of a decline. The Sunday 
school cannot stand still. 

It is foolish to say that a thing is worth doing at 
all if it is not worth doing well. That which is worth 
doing cannot be done too well. A peculiarity of 
Sunday school work is that it has always been char- 
acterized by more carelessness and incompleteness 
than anything else in which even its best friends are 
in any way vitally interested. All are conscious of 
this weakness, and all are conscious that in the end 
the great encomium, ‘Well done,’’ cannot crown the 
work as it is usually found. 


Is it 
Worth 
While? 


Losing 
Ground, 


A Char- 
acteristic 
Weakness. 


Only 
One 
Chance. 


A Bad 
Rule, a 
Good 


Exception. 


Connect- 
ing 
Links. 


98 GRADING THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 


We pass over the educational period in our lives 
but once. There is no such thing as coming this way 
asecond time. Those who are not trained and saved 
while under Sunday school influence now will never 
have the same opportunity, under the same condi- 
tions, again. Those who do poor work as educators 
and leaders can never atone for it by doing better 
work with the same people in a second opportunity. 

The Christian church sustains the character in the 
eyes of the world of being a do-nothing institution. 
The measure of its accomplishment is all out of pro- 
portion to its measure of opportunity. In its mem- 
bership the rule is indifference and inefficiency—the 
exception is faithfulness and efficiency. What it 
achieves is largely in spite of, and rarely because of, 
the bulk of its organic constituency. It needs above 
all things to be made (1) to know, and (2) to do. 

If the character of the church is to be changed, the 
change will come largely through the Sunday school. 
Through this it may be made practically a body of 
trained workers. To nothing else and in no other 
direction can the church look with a reasonable hope 
of substantial assistance in its own reform. This re- 
form must come through character building in the 
Sunday school. Character building must come 
through better work there. Better work there must 
come through the erection of higher standards. The 
higher standards mean education on lines of careful 
grading and systematic instruction, Is it all worth 
while? 


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rosntessninisiatatasesssosacayeinauenasessnepnsnpneenss 
Siocon 
: 
STm 
watenasesaboscseserseoe=t 
oosasnosesonesre=s: 
2a coSosesmseses 
stest 
errs 
oreveescoswcecrsctioetiomtorecetcret stats tetaths brlemectstasbensbtorsitieiasssabaseiaerr 
olstcceses-nosesequenersesnosonsnoseress 2 
TT Saseecsasy Lada eee Sipisssantsansanotonepermpscnones 
ralosegesensstehasabeaononeconanaparansosonaseene=e=ret 
Prerresvetbepnovers <everbencereseters? 


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nes eaedacesns biome easepeeintcdonepsscanpopnemmsegengnasueposnpent promepnpenspanagensensabantsshas tenesesenenntennee teem fats petwresrre = 
= 


rit 
veosteasactoeewanignsnssonpeoasenses’ 


rorriaaiaicoerecnaatanemnsssnsagisennespianesmanamacseghonsassenearancnenerasennerere = tanenagneeteynnents 
Pappa iprecceeenenteecce tennant tre sree taat Sats Seset tas Ris fe secenesnonseeatsSSRSSSOESES 
aaa aca n a aararacceeransverncnaannrnenennnsenesenn se 
oaeneneeetereleteheneoenstononens 
Teraieincpnioccacsossemseqenioncnanesosopent ivasgnesensenteenrte-puanaehnpanmenaneneretaces Tern 
rrranSpreta ne aiotalacecategteteteneneanenesose-—semsnnegnes tagnsanwesenensnreanes 
ee 
THUSSESE SES ST aonsgnenet ensiorcaseareseeeas: 
rete Saaoteasaesraenenprsnensnoneresee . 
Tpcsielotetetesssescsesaetetenstononesevesessesaseseraeerereneeenesepemase gen 


errata oaoce carensnclonarotosetosonoreensecuguesnnseonermeecoeesaeayesmrayinannermnanenererennremnanennenen 
Serer pestis eerrecemcrecr are seep renerenee Siseerenteeetioess 


setes wo 
roseswerensrerbenbe peseeeveswertit je tere te ter tre ster eeetetteritseeeth 
pepensevonsuerersaterseecrrsterren ste} 


pet aceenenoweennen ee eect porenereenrtrett bell eee eerrrereetrt 
otessneresas: 
nsepnanatsrsnesansnpheres 
sposousversemrceey sews te ferrereeerere stil] 
yoscrsyinansrasen’ 
epeewncesesetet poner tte 


pid pessecseseowsnensar revere reerereeesstbete newer er tet 
ort 


aelaipactenrases) 


ene eer repaaiem sstasesonnseneytesertonneneneer 


ars Seoowrovpvncieer peers tesd] 
ricislomstesesesoseutesesetonercrnessaone 
poveneocurapssuprereress titrant oy 
raeenatenstewsssensiens=ereyrt 


voghalosenscasestparenasueerarepioses™ 
walpsosesaaseoper 
yocsunptatatensiotabeses 


_ Ctarrrisst niniabonssossnasosorose-esapuesna-snergeanarnenestansennnn 
pebiotsastorsee pete pers eranrerereonees reont Se toeeyeretit merereetistetiereent erersoet 


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neleteosereneres 


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ralelenesngeansrguneoses 
ieiglcecsssnresagaumbonesenteesceotey 
sole lg teectasteppupagsnerionel 


Tatesocererapassovenesorore=er 


Serereetecti scence comet tre set bateeseeny 
sigaetsmerssesst 
resaslanessroseomreys 


te RSS 
ratiastetaticcecetetaiaionestescatsuaneceopusoessipemeenneresonenensen' 


‘Teeanen 
= ate: = 
: rorsgeorerownctrty 
Yolchenonasceteyeeipee 
Secateyenranone’ 
cortussesscererepstepseprpisesesees ee peer seerens eet Tipe reenter rere ere metentoeseal 


Moneneeeeecrerapinnsts.cseshgnetrasdanmreceenmnnetennnnssunset=resnsesnanenenerered! Shaasloceghebelessustoseey 
eaagnasatoranspecascsssapisieteceneneesagiowsarerennontepapenpeteenenenetesesnecesemenes 


lalogesorse tevptgnaseneaoapet 
pepteerstttrreroert 


Tatgieserocscasectnesenenssess: 
viptessscsagogenorenssionssstessresseseaeeenr 
Aololecgissssoeneenewcesesancscsanereser=st 
Srroveverpspeeresererses 
inlgrenoserogesanenstesnonas: 
wanesoasqened' 
ralelenanencassacssnpis insenesmsnansnengesssssascnenen 
renesemnomeosoveseenss 
wpraneseceesecoerts 


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Stott - 
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winagaasgaeneacsepeeasinesanee’ 


Hi HG 


a toccestespiononetohos=< 
waveseesgronenecenesenneey 
a serespereressoereoerse oy 
= nat 


yogagennstancrsneneracee’ 
Gisieisa-seseresrseioas oe 
~—s wesvariinanstiasscsengesesenacentenssenseaea ot 
seotemcgapenseiansnsranescsarestpanat ee 
niotnss neceresanenovnpans piosesonemorer 
ere reipesickstasseonensigtetnnoetenentegann 
season = 
Releoree: youaes 


= 
| o—ane nnn at — 
Sites enaseenerenan mesa h ens eee enceesennteetenaesSansersetenraetener=sessencasianoc 
eytsteag te magnssvognonyoaeaey pennsarsangnees tora eons oer aaa leanne cena eta agteioeseaea 
=~ esorsesererer =. 
: = = 
Je een ene eae a nenenennee ee. Soe on naeeans ess:iaagacs susastoasnossenssesana sose—naerananenenenns= saree ere 
SSS == 
= = sees eee at 
00s ts —nenennsnamenen ones enemnn = osonmner 
vo voc nanoseangneesancseeeenel mgnpeesone=s 3 eer arietaetehioeael 
oor Sreeecen = SSerrecsterererrsss sole aeetata retin 5 scerees 2s SS = 
maeeaee sriens Saaeseaenomea co seeeencoastasopesssioisngnsbone = ~ “TSS srapeiterstecesteses ssened 
penaewess err ne tear ee — — = en 
eon en ananarns os agers sae omen = ~ en --- ~- perereeies 
= = = aaeelace peste tenascin anes 
== : Sescoreperectes 


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